<p>The Spanish tennis federation (RFET) plan to sue French TV broadcaster Canal+ over a sketch which appeared to imply world number two Rafael Nadal and his fellow Spanish athletes are drug cheats. <br /><br /></p>.<p>The sketch from the show ‘Les Guignols’, or ‘The Puppets’, shows a life-size likeness of Nadal filling up his car’s gas tank from his own bladder before being pulled over by traffic police for speeding. <br /><br />“Spanish athletes. They do not win by chance,” is flashed on the screen surrounded by the logo of the RFET and several other Spanish federations, including soccer and cycling. <br /><br />In a statement published on Wednesday, the RFET said it planned to sue Canal+ France for ‘publishing a video in which, as well as containing unacceptable and damaging insinuations, the federation’s emblem and anagram were used’. <br /><br />The federation would be demanding that the video is withdrawn, the logo is not used again and that Canal+ pays damages for its unauthorised use, the statement added. <br />Canal+ officials did not immediately respond to telephone calls seeking comment. <br /><br />“On this occasion intolerable limits have been exceeded and we at the RFET cannot ignore such discredit and slander towards our athletes,” federation president Jose Luis Escanuela said. <br /><br />Canal+ broadcast the Nadal sketch after Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador was banned for two years on Monday for failing a doping test during the 2010 Tour de France. <br />It was the latest French attack on Spanish athletes following comments from former French Open tennis champion Yannick Noah in November in which he accused them of using ‘magic potions’.</p>
<p>The Spanish tennis federation (RFET) plan to sue French TV broadcaster Canal+ over a sketch which appeared to imply world number two Rafael Nadal and his fellow Spanish athletes are drug cheats. <br /><br /></p>.<p>The sketch from the show ‘Les Guignols’, or ‘The Puppets’, shows a life-size likeness of Nadal filling up his car’s gas tank from his own bladder before being pulled over by traffic police for speeding. <br /><br />“Spanish athletes. They do not win by chance,” is flashed on the screen surrounded by the logo of the RFET and several other Spanish federations, including soccer and cycling. <br /><br />In a statement published on Wednesday, the RFET said it planned to sue Canal+ France for ‘publishing a video in which, as well as containing unacceptable and damaging insinuations, the federation’s emblem and anagram were used’. <br /><br />The federation would be demanding that the video is withdrawn, the logo is not used again and that Canal+ pays damages for its unauthorised use, the statement added. <br />Canal+ officials did not immediately respond to telephone calls seeking comment. <br /><br />“On this occasion intolerable limits have been exceeded and we at the RFET cannot ignore such discredit and slander towards our athletes,” federation president Jose Luis Escanuela said. <br /><br />Canal+ broadcast the Nadal sketch after Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador was banned for two years on Monday for failing a doping test during the 2010 Tour de France. <br />It was the latest French attack on Spanish athletes following comments from former French Open tennis champion Yannick Noah in November in which he accused them of using ‘magic potions’.</p>