A French television channel is set to be sued by the Spanish Tennis Federation (the Real Federacion Espanola de Tenis, or RFET) after they aired a sketch which implies that world No 2 Rafael Nadal and other Spanish athletes are drug users.
The Irish Independent reports that the sketch, which appeared on the Canal+ show Les Guignols (The Puppets), shows a likeness of the tennis star filling up his car’s petrol tank by urinating in it. He is then pulled over by police for speeding as the slogan “Spanish athletes. They do not win by chance,” is flashed on the screen, surrounded by the logos for the RFET and a few other Spanish sporting federations, including football and cycling.
Naturally, the Spanish Tennis Federation was not impressed.
In a statement published on Wednesday, the Spanish Tennis Federation announced its plans to sue Canal+ France. It said that they were taking them court for “publishing a video in which, as well as containing unacceptable and damaging insinuations, the federation’s emblem and anagram were used.”
The federation is demanding that the video is withdrawn immediately, that their logo is not used by the television station again and that Canal+ pays damages for its unauthorised use.
“On this occasion intolerable limits have been exceeded and we at the RFET cannot ignore such discredit and slander towards our athletes,” said the president of the federation, Jose Luis Escanuela.
It is reported that Canal+ broadcast the sketch after Alberto Contador, a Spanish cyclist, was hit with a two year ban after failing a doping test during the 2010 Tour de France.
However, Rafael Nadal is regularly tested for drug use both in and out of competition, and to date the tennis player has a completely clean record.
The sketch by Canal+ was the latest French attack on Spanish athletes after former French Open tennis champion Yannick Noah accused them of using “magic potions” in November.
