The feud at the top of Spanish football has gone fully public.
For the opening minutes of Real Madrid’s 4-1 win over Sevilla on Sunday, the Santiago Bernabeu’s south stand unveiled a large banner reading “No es fútbol, son Tebas y Negreira”, or “It’s not football, it’s Tebas and Negreira”, with both names rendered in Barcelona’s blue and red as a pointed reference to the Negreira case. The stadium chanted for Tebas to go and jeered Barcelona president Joan Laporta.
The Negreira case concerns payments Barcelona made to companies tied to José María Enríquez Negreira, a former vice-president of the Spanish refereeing committee, and has sat at the heart of Real Madrid’s complaints for years.
Tebas has refused to step down. His response to the Bernabeu was to accuse Real Madrid’s directors of being “used to lying”.
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“The Real Madrid board has settled on manipulation and lies,” he told Spanish media.
Earlier in the week he had delivered an even sharper verdict, telling reporters his conclusion was that Real Madrid were “trying to DESTROY the national competition”.
‘Goebbels’ and a four-match ban for Vinicius
The flashpoint has two dates: 14 October and 16 October.
That Wednesday night, the Spanish federation handed Vinicius Jr a four-match suspension for pulling Villarreal defender Nathan Saliba’s hair during Real Madrid’s 1-0 win four days earlier: two games for violent conduct, two more for his furious reaction to the red card. The Appeals Committee upheld the ruling on the Friday, confirming that the Brazilian would miss the trip to Barcelona on 25 October along with league games against Sevilla, Racing Santander and Valencia.
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The same Friday, Tebas lit the fuse. He said Real Madrid TV’s output resembled the propaganda mechanisms of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda.
Real Madrid’s board replied within hours, calling the comparison “absolutely intolerable and extraordinarily serious” in a formal statement and demanding Tebas resign from his roles at LaLiga and the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
Tebas’s counter was immediate.
“My position requires independence, not passivity in the face of injustice,” he said in a statement carried by Spanish outlets, defending his handling of the Negreira file and arguing that a video was no substitute for evidence.
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He framed Real Madrid’s grievances as part of a wider campaign.
“What they have not achieved so far with the Super League, they are trying to achieve through a distorted narrative,” he said.
A 13-year war, with El Clasico seven days away
Tebas has been LaLiga president since 2013 and said he had “lost count” of the times Real Madrid officials have called for him to go over those 13 years. Laporta, himself the subject of Bernabeu chants on Sunday, has publicly backed the LaLiga president.
Real Madrid travel to Spotify Camp Nou for El Clasico on Sunday 25 October, kick-off at 9pm local time. Vinicius will watch from the stand.
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