Real Madrid have turned a dispute over refereeing in the Madrid derby into a direct challenge to LaLiga president Javier Tebas. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the club said Spanish professional football urgently needs a leader who can run the competition with neutrality. It accused Tebas of using his position to attack Madrid publicly and of damaging the league’s reputation. The statement did not set out a formal procedure to remove him.

A derby defeat ignites the dispute

Atlético Madrid beat Real Madrid 2-1 on Sunday, a result confirmed by LaLiga’s match coverage. Madrid objected to decisions involving Atlético players Cristian Romero and Lee Kang-in, whom the club believed should have been sent off for challenges on Jude Bellingham and Federico Valverde. Madrid defender Dean Huijsen was sent off in the second half after a video review. The club’s own match report described the refereeing as dreadful, but its account of the disputed challenges remains its assessment, not an established finding of bias.

Tebas rejected the wider suggestion that referees were acting against Madrid. In comments reported by Spanish public broadcaster RTVE, he said that claiming officials were directed against the club was to live “in another galaxy”. He argued that a refereeing error does not prove a conspiracy and suggested that the allegations distracted from problems on the pitch.

Madrid questions the league president’s neutrality

That intervention prompted Madrid’s unusually blunt statement. The club said Tebas had commented on its sporting strategy while responding to a journalist’s article, conduct it considered inappropriate for someone charged with representing every LaLiga club. It argued that the league president should build confidence in the competition’s impartiality and described him as a manager serving the clubs, rather than the competition’s owner.

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Tebas answered the club’s statement the same day. As AS reported in its account of his response, he agreed that LaLiga’s president does not own the competition, but added that Real Madrid’s president does not own it either. The disagreement has now moved beyond individual decisions in one match to a public argument about how the league should be led and how its referees should be discussed.

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