Real Madrid TV Rejects Juanma Castaño’s Apology, Citing Continued Accusations of Manipulation

Presenter Álvaro de la Lama dismissed journalist Juanma Castaño’s recent apology as insufficient, arguing that retracting a single inflammatory comparison while maintaining broader accusations of manipulation amounts to no real concession. Speaking on Real Madrid Conecta, the club’s in-house channel, De la Lama clarified that the dispute transcends typical media friction. He characterized Castaño’s partial retraction—specifically regarding likening Real Madrid TV (RMTV) to the newspaper Gara—as a rhetorical maneuver that fails to address what he views as persistent harassment by the COPE broadcaster.

The controversy originated from a column published by Castaño in ABC, where he equated RMTV’s editorial stance with Gara, a publication historically linked to the Basque abertzale left and, during certain periods, accused of providing financial support networks for the terrorist organization ETA. Real Madrid’s institutional response was immediate and severe, labeling the analogy an “extremely serious act” that violated fundamental ethical boundaries. The club’s statement emphasized that associating its official media outlet with entities tied to terrorism was not merely a journalistic error but a deliberate escalation that demanded accountability beyond standard professional critique.

Castaño later addressed the backlash on his radio program, El Partidazo, conceding that the reference to Gara was “excessive.” However, he refused to withdraw his characterization of RMTV’s coverage as lying, manipulative, and targeted. This distinction is central to De la Lama’s rebuttal: he contends that by retaining these descriptors, Castaño effectively renewed the attack under different phrasing. For the presenter, the historical weight of the Gara comparison cannot be neutralized by a partial apology if the underlying accusation—that the channel operates outside the norms of fair sports journalism—remains intact.

De la Lama anchored his defense in RMTV’s consistent focus on refereeing controversies, asserting that the channel’s weekly broadcasts provide evidentiary backing for its criticisms rather than fabricating narratives. By highlighting specific incidents reviewed frame-by-frame, he argued that the content serves a corrective function within Spanish football discourse. This operational reality, he suggested, makes the conflation with a politically motivated publication like Gara not only inaccurate but defamatory. The rejection of the apology signals a hardening stance from the club’s media arm, indicating that future interactions will likely remain adversarial unless Castaño fully recants the allegations of systemic bias and manipulation.