Real Madrid calls for Spanish league boss’s head
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MADRID (AP):
Real Madrid yesterday called for a new Spanish league president, arguing that Javier Tebas’s comments about the club’s complaints regarding refereeing decisions were “intolerable”.
Madrid released a statement hours after Tebas criticised the club for attacking the refereeing team following Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Atlético Madrid. The club said that “given this inappropriate behaviour”, Spanish football “urgently needs a leader capable of managing it and developing its full potential with the fundamental duty of neutrality”.
“It needs someone who understands the nature of their role as the president of La Liga is not the owner of the competition but a manager serving the clubs that comprise it and entrust him with its direction,” Real Madrid said. “The clubs need someone who serves this mission with honesty.”
Madrid and Tebas have frequently exchanged barbs on issues involving Spanish and European football.
The club said it does not accept Tebas’s use of “his institutional position to continue discrediting and attacking Real Madrid”.
“It is also very concerning that someone who is responsible for representing and protecting the interests of all La Liga clubs is repeatedly obsessed with targeting Real Madrid, turning our club into a constant subject of his public attacks,” the statement said.
Tebas said on X that Madrid is always looking for an excuse to complain and uses alleged refereeing mistakes to hide its shortcomings. He was responding to an article that referred to an alleged conspiracy against the club.
“To claim that referees are targeting Real Madrid is to live in another galaxy,” Tebas said. “That narrative serves as a smokescreen to mask other shortcomings that are glaringly obvious in these opening matches of the season.”
The defeat to Atlético left Real Madrid fourth in the standings after seven rounds, six points behind leaders Barcelona.
Madrid said Tebas’ “latest remarks are particularly serious and incomprehensible, unbecoming of a responsible manager”.
“It is utterly surprising that the president of La Liga dedicates his time and personal platforms to constantly trying to publicly discredit Real Madrid instead of contributing, from the responsibility of his position, to fostering trust in the institutions that must ensure the impartiality of the competition,” Madrid said.
“By doing so, he continues to damage the image of our competition and Spanish soccer worldwide.”
Real Madrid coach José Mourinho arrived at Sunday’s post-match news conference carrying a sheet of paper featuring photographs which he said showed “two clear red cards” that were not issued to Atlético players. He then spent nearly five minutes complaining about “strange” things that have happened to his team this season and in the past.
Atlético on Monday called for an end to “refereeing harassment”. The club posted a message on social media reading, “stop refereeing harassment now”, accompanied by a video showing an image of Mourinho emerging from a printer.