On an institutional basis, it appears that one of the main reasons Real Madrid exist is to issue votes of confidence to doomed managers before sacking them. Rafa Benitez, for example, was issued with such a message, less than two months before he was sacked. The same happened to Carlo Ancelotti.
The latest man to get a vote of confidence is tennis player Rafa Nadal. Madrid issued the following statement on their website today:
Real Madrid C.F. would like to express their full support to our honorary member, Rafa Nadal, undoubtedly one of the greatest sportsmen of all time in Spain and in the world.
Rafa Nadal represents the fundamental values of sport. His greatness and his incredible achievements have always been based upon a foundation of exemplary conduct, unwavering work, talent and astonishing levels of commitment.
This being the case, our institution considers the attacks made on his person by former minister Roselyne Bachelot to be unjustifiable and unacceptable.
Real Madrid C.F. consider the close ties to an idol such as Nadal to be an honour, such is his status as a symbol sporting excellence. Nadal is admired and adored by millions of fans the world over, and today our club is standing firmly by his side.
The statement is in response to allegations made towards Nadal by the former French minister of health and sport Roselyne Bachelot, who claimed yesterday that Nadal did not compete for seven months in 2013 as he was serving a ban for testing positive. She made the comments to Grand8 yesterday:
We know that Rafael Nadal's famous injury, that stopped him for seven months, is certainly due to a positive drug test. When you see that a player stays away for months is because he is positive. Not every time, but very often.
Nadal has strongly rejected the claims and reports in Spain that Nadal is threatening legal action against Bachelot.
