The La Liga president tore into Real Madrid on Tuesday over the club’s official complaint about Sunday’s Madrid derby, telling reporters that Madrid and their media allies were peddling “the same old narrative, the permanent conspiracy.”
“Claiming that referees are directed against Real Madrid is living in another galaxy,” Tebas said.
“That narrative serves as an excuse to cover up other shortcomings that are plain to see in these first matches of the season,” Tebas added.
What Mourinho did on Sunday
The row was ignited by Jose Mourinho in his post-match press conference at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano, where Atletico Madrid had just beaten his side 2-1. The Real Madrid manager pulled two printed still images out from beneath the desk, showing the tackles he wanted to relitigate: Cristian Romero stepping on Jude Bellingham’s knee, and Lee Kang-in catching Federico Valverde’s ankle.
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“The history of the game is here,” Mourinho told reporters as he held up the photos.
He also questioned the officiating body’s choice of a 41-year-old referee with no international experience for a fixture of that size.
“It’s a referee who, at 41, doesn’t have international experience. I don’t know why he was the referee. The poor guy came here and couldn’t cope with the pressure,” Mourinho said.
Real Madrid’s ‘abysmal’ statement
Real Madrid went further that evening, issuing an unusually blunt public statement that described referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias’s performance as “abysmal” and accused him of two match-defining errors: failing to send off Romero after reviewing the tackle on the monitor, and failing to punish Lee for the Valverde challenge.
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Atletico’s own reply came as mockery: a social-media video of a printer churning out an image of Mourinho holding his still photos, captioned “Stop referee harassment now.”
The referees’ body partially agreed
The complaint did not fall on entirely deaf ears. La Liga’s refereeing committee, the CTA, has since accepted that Lee should have been sent off for his tackle on Valverde, according to Spanish daily AS, though the committee stood by the decision not to dismiss Romero, describing the VAR situation as confusing.
Six points behind Barcelona
Tebas closed with a rebuke of the club’s rhetoric.
“Real Madrid are crucial to La Liga. But claiming that ‘La Liga is worth nothing’ without them reveals the disdain for the other clubs, their fans, and their history,” he said.
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Real Madrid sit six points behind reigning champions and current leaders Barcelona.
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