Scandal erupts! La Liga president Tebas fires back at Real Madrid
The conflict between Real Madrid and La Liga president Javier Tebas is escalating, with the league chief refusing to back down.
Details: La Liga president Javier Tebas has responded to Real Madrid's official statement criticizing his comments on the refereeing in the club's 2-1 away defeat to Atlético Madrid in the seventh round of the Spanish championship. The official published a lengthy message on X, defending his independence and explaining why he refuses to accept the Madrid club's accusations.
Tebas wrote the following in his statement:
“I have read the statement. I fully agree with one sentence: the president of La Liga is not the owner of the competition. Neither is the president of Real Madrid.
Representing all clubs means defending equality and fairness in the treatment of each of them. That includes when it is claimed that ‘La Liga is worth nothing’ without Real Madrid or that referees are harming ‘the business that feeds them.’ Those statements were precisely what prompted my response, yet your statement does not say a single word about them.
Now they are hiding behind the fact that I responded to an ‘independent’ journalist. But neither this narrative nor the strategy of diverting attention from other problems is new. They have been doing this for years through Real Madrid TV and their mouthpieces, talking and writing about a rigged La Liga matchday after matchday. Do not try to present as someone else's opinion the rhetoric that you yourselves spread through your own television channel and at club level.
You demand that I help strengthen confidence in the impartiality of the competition. That is precisely why I reject the claim that referees are acting against Real Madrid. Criticizing a refereeing decision is entirely legitimate. But turning every decision that goes against you into evidence of persecution is something completely different. Does that strengthen confidence, or does it damage the image of Spanish football?
You confuse neutrality with independence. If by neutrality you mean refusing to take sides under any circumstances, even when it comes to what is right and what is wrong, then you are effectively asking me to abandon my responsibility. Independence means making decisions based on one's own judgment, without pressure or subordination, applying the same rules to everyone and defending the common interest. That means making decisions and taking a clear position, even if Real Madrid does not like it.
Defending the interests of a club does not mean agreeing with its rhetoric. Just as representing everyone does not mean obeying the most powerful. It is necessary to defend the interests of the competition, the interests of La Liga.
I am not the owner of La Liga, and I am not going to manage it as if it belonged to a single club. Respect for everyone. Subordination to no one,” Tebas concluded.
It is worth noting that the dispute followed the seventh-round La Liga derby, in which Atlético Madrid defeated Real Madrid 2-1. The Madrid club publicly criticized the refereeing after the match, particularly the decisions involving Cristian Romero and Lee Kang-in.
Reminder: Scandal! Real Madrid release official statement on refereeing in Atlético derby
Steven Perez
Dailysports's expert
