La Liga Chief Javier Tebas Faces Potential Punishment for Real Madrid Nazi Comparison

Spain’s National Sports Council (CSD) has elevated a complaint against La Liga president Javier Tebas after he compared Real Madrid’s communication techniques to the ones employed by Nazi Germany.

Real Madrid called for Tebas’s immediate resignation after he took to social media to equate the club and their in-house TV channel’s “propaganda techniques” to the ones employed by Nazi minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels. Instead of backtracking and issuing an apology, Tebas double-downed on his comments days later.

CSD opened an investigation and, on Thursday, it acted on its own initiative and filed a complaint against Tebas with Spain’s Sports Administrative Tribunal (TAD), signed by Spain’s secretary of sport José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes.

CSD released a statement explaining its desire for TAD to consider if Tebas’s comments represent a major infringement of article 76.4.b of Spain’s sports law, which considers “notorious and public acts against sporting dignity or decorum” as grave infractions.

TAD must now decide whether CSD’s complaint has enough merit to open an investigation that could lead to Tebas facing serious punishments. How long that process could take is uncertain.

The Sanctions Tebas Could Face for Real Madrid Nazi Comparison

Javier Tebas. — Javier Tebas could be forced to step down as La Liga president. | Irina R. Hipolito/Europa Press/Getty Images

If TAD decides to act on CSD’s complaint and finds Tebas guilty, then the La Liga president could be in a world of trouble.

AS reports that according to Spain’s sports law, Tebas could face one of three different forms of punishment.

The first would be a public warning, which would be the least severe. Tebas could also receive a fine that doesn’t exceed €3,000 ($3,360). Finally, if TAD deems Tebas’s infraction severe, he could be disqualified from his current role for one month up to two years.

In the past, TAD ruled against former Spain Football Federation president Luis Rubiales and suspended him for three years for violating the same article Tebas is accused of breaching. Rubiales resigned as president even prior to TAD’s ruling in the aftermath of the intense controversy that erupted when he kissed Spain women’s national team player Jennifer Hermoso following La Roja’s 2023 World Cup title.

Since Tebas took over as La Liga president in 2013, CSD has opened over 20 investigations against him, and this is the fifth one to reach TAD, per AS. Of those five, the only sanction Tebas has ever faced is a public warning.

‘Enforce It’—Tebas Responds to CSD Complaint

As was the case when CSD first started its investigation, Tebas has once again taken to social media to respond to the filed complaint to TAS, and he once again called for action against Real Madrid.

“One more,” Tebas wrote. “Another request from CSD to TAD and, once again, headlines about my possible disqualification. The reasons change, but the insistence is the same. We expected it: any excuse was going to work.

“But there’s a silence that especially catches the attention. We haven’t heard the state’s secretary of sport nor any other CSD higher up say a single word of complaint against the accusations made by Real Madrid and their television channel.”

Tebas continues to call for action against Real Madrid after the club’s in-house channel called La Liga a rigged competition and accused him of corruption. He also once again clarified that he never meant to claim that Real Madrid and their fans follow the Nazi ideology; he was only comparing their propaganda techniques to the ones used by the Nazi regime.

“Defending the competition also requires responding to those who constantly discredit it,” Tebas added. “It’s part of my responsibility, and I will continue to enforce it.”

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