The Spanish tennis federation is planning to sue Canal Plus France for using its logo in a video that poked fun at Rafael Nadal and other Spaniards' alleged ties to doping.
In the video skit this week on Les Guignols (The Puppets) satirical program, a man wearing a Nadal puppet mask is shown urinating into his car's gas tank before racing off at immense speed only to be pulled over by traffic police for speeding.
A message reading ''Spanish athletes. They don't win by chance,'' then appears on the screen surrounded by the logos of the tennis federation and other Spanish federations such as those of cycling and football.
''This time they have gone way too far,'' tennis federation president Jose Luis Escanuela said in the statement. ''We at the tennis federation cannot tolerate the slander and damage to the prestige of our athletes.''
The video came hours after the Court of Arbitration for Sport issued a two-year ban against Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador for doping. Contador was also stripped of his 2010 Tour de France win.
Nadal has won the French Open six times since 2005. The 25-year-old tennis star, who told Spanish media Thursday he had not seen the video, labeled "Les Guignols" as a "repeat offender."
"One day is OK but when, from what I understand, it is done repeatedly then that is not so good because it crosses the line a bit. And it is always with the same focus," Nadal said.
"The institutions in general have to defend us because I don't think it is a campaign against me or a campaign against anyone. It is a campaign against Spain in general, and against Spanish sports."
The federation said it will provide details of the lawsuit Saturday during the Davis Cup match between Spain and Kazakhstan. It said the action will begin with a demand for Canal Plus France to withdraw the video, to abstain from using the federation's logo improperly and compensation for having used it improperly.
It said it would seek the support of other sport federations for the suit.
NewsCore contributed to this report.
