Real Madrid enters media dispute with journalist Juanma Castaño

A high-profile dispute has erupted between Real Madrid and journalist Juanma Castaño, director of COPE’s ‘El Partidazo’. The conflict intensified after Castaño published a column in ABC comparing Real Madrid TV to the newspaper Gara, a publication historically linked to the terrorist group ETA.

Real Madrid issued a formal statement calling the comparison ‘absolutely deplorable and inadmissible’ and subsequently released a video on its official social media channels. The video compiles a decade of Castaño’s statements to accuse him of lying, manipulating, and harassing the club. In response, Castaño apologized for the specific comparison to Gara but maintained his broader criticism, stating that Real Madrid TV ‘lies, manipulates, singles out and harasses’.

Castaño has characterized the club’s actions as a ‘crusade’ led by President Florentino Pérez, describing the use of official club channels to target a journalist as ‘absolutely unprecedented’. He argued that the club’s focus on him suggests a decline in the level of its battles, comparing his situation to Pérez’s past conflicts with major figures like UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.