Rabat – LaLiga president Javier Tebas has described Real Madrid as the “most rebellious” club in Spanish professional football, criticizing how the club’s leadership views the sport’s future structure.
Tebas made the comments on Monday during the first National Conference on Journalism and Sport in Vigo, organized by the Galician Association of Sports Journalists (AGAXORDE).
“The most rebellious team in Spain is Real Madrid because Madrid’s directors have a way of understanding football that I do not have,” Tebas said. “In Europe, there is Al-Khelaifi.”
He was referring to Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, another influential figure in European football governance.
Tebas then argued that major clubs such as Real Madrid and Barcelona remain essential to Spanish football but cannot exist without the rest of the domestic pyramid.
“We have built incredible football over 20 years, and we have to defend it so that we don’t lose it,” he said. “On this train there are locomotives, like Madrid or Barcelona, but we also need the carriages.”
Tebas warns against ‘two-speed’ football
Much of Tebas’ intervention focused on his long-standing opposition to changes that he believes could weaken domestic leagues.
The LaLiga president pointed to the growing number of national-team competitions, expanded European tournaments and the Club World Cup as factors placing increasing pressure on the calendar.
“The problem is that now there are more national-team competitions, more matches in European competitions, a Club World Cup,” he said. “That is congesting the calendar and we are creating a very complicated football system.”
Tebas also returned to the European Super League debate, accusing Real Madrid president Florentino Perez of supporting a model that would increase the gap between Europe’s richest clubs and the rest.
He argued that although the original Super League project had been stopped, another version was gradually emerging through the expansion and financial strength of continental competitions.
“If we continue like this, they will destroy domestic football and we will end up with the Super League,” Tebas warned. “If we don’t take measures, we will have football at two speeds.”
Tebas also rejected the idea that reducing LaLiga from its current 20 clubs is the solution to fixture congestion, instead placing responsibility on the increasing number of international competitions.
He later said LaLiga could eventually review the system for distributing television revenue, while stressing that any changes would have to respect the legal framework governing broadcasting income in Spanish football.
