This Sunday sees El Clásico between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. But another classic scenario is also unfolding: the bosses are at loggerheads. La Liga president Javier Tebas, Real president Florentino Pérez and Barça president Joan Laporta.
It is considered out of the question that Javier Tebas will turn up at Camp Nou this Sunday for the first Clásico of the season between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Firstly, the La Liga president has been an avowed Real Madrid supporter since childhood. Secondly, one would hardly expect him to attend at the moment anyway. There is a ‘war’ between Real and Tebas, which is currently escalating. Atlético Madrid president Enrique Cerezo says: ‘There must be no wars in football; we must put an end to this as quickly as possible.’
The only question is: how? Perhaps, however, Tebas has soon reached the end of his tether anyway. This is because Spain’s highest sports authority (CSD), which reports to the government, decided on Thursday to file a complaint against the league boss with the Sports Administrative Court (TAD). This once proved to be the downfall of federation president Luis Rubiales.
The background to this is the comparisons made by Tebas a week ago between Real Madrid’s public relations work and the propaganda of Joseph Goebbels and the National Socialists in the Third Reich.
Tebas, whose contract runs until the end of 2027, now faces the prospect of being removed from office. This is something the ambitious lawyer – who has sympathised with the right-wing populist party Vox for years and defends his remarks as an expression of the freedom of speech guaranteed in Spain – might even take in his stride.
The 64-year-old has stated on several occasions that he could earn significantly more money in the private sector than the 2.2 million euros that La Liga pays him annually as a fixed salary. That said, depending on the achievement of financial targets and bonuses, Tebas’s earnings can reach up to 5.4 million. In the 2024/25 season, according to La Liga, his earnings stood at 3.32 million euros. By way of comparison, Rafael Louzan, as president of the association, earns 368,000 euros.
Now in his fourth term of office
Heated controversy is no problem for Tebas; it is the approach he has used to lead La Liga since 2013. Now in his fourth term, he has already been re-elected as president three times without any opposing candidates and therefore without any dissenting votes from the 42 clubs in the first and second divisions. And there are good reasons for this.
The Financial Fair Play rules introduced by Tebas have reduced the clubs’ massive tax debts to the tax authorities from a former figure of 650 million euros to practically zero. The centralised distribution of TV revenue that he pushed through in 2015 (against fierce opposition from Real Madrid and Barcelona) has led to greater equality of opportunity in La Liga.
By bringing in a private equity firm, he opened up the league to venture capital, but in doing so also provided the clubs with a kind of infrastructure fund. The clubs must use the vast majority of these funds for specific infrastructure projects (stadiums, academies) and are not permitted to use them, for example, to plug financial gaps (debt reduction).
And his battle against the Premier League – which, according to Tebas, operates in an “uncontrolled manner” – “state-backed clubs” such as Manchester City or PSG, and their “financial doping” from the Arab world, has been confirmed by recent developments.
The Argentine 1986 World Cup winner Jorge Valdano praised Tebas years ago, saying he had made “the league richer and, in terms of the distribution of funds, more democratic”. In short, Tebas had “done more for Spanish football than all his critics put together”.
As is well known, Tebas has rid himself of one arch-enemy: His bitter battle against the former federation president, Rubiales, ended with the latter’s removal from office in 2023, after Rubiales had kissed international player Jennifer Hermoso on the mouth without her consent during the victory ceremony following the World Cup final. Tebas described this at the time as “despicable”, Rubiales himself a “madman”, and the “damage to the reputation of Spanish football irreparable”.
Tebas’s new arch-enemy: Pérez
Since the ousting of former federation president Rubiales, Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez has been Tebas’s arch-enemy. Tebas described Real’s attempt to launch the Super League with top European clubs, bypassing La Liga and UEFA, as “elitist and oligarchic”. Perez, whom he denounced as “the epitome of an obsessed feudal lord”, was, he claimed, seeking to “deliberately destroy La Liga”.
It is an accusation he has now levelled once again. For Real’s battle against the Spanish refereeing system – a battle the club has been waging for years, primarily via its club channel Real Madrid TV – is at a critical stage. Ahead of El Clásico, the channel is now reporting: “Real Madrid must hold their own against 17 referees at the Camp Nou: four on the pitch, the video referees, and the eleven Barça players who will decide which incidents are reviewed by VAR and which are not. This is a scandal.”
“Real Madrid TV” is whipping up the Clásico
For Tebas, this is the “distorted narrative of a man possessed” aimed at systematically discrediting La Liga. He is not alone in this view. It is no coincidence that Barça president Joan Laporta has now publicly sided with Tebas in the “Nazi debate”.
Barça is under immense pressure in the wake of the ongoing investigations into the alleged Negreira bribery scandal, after Real Madrid sent a dossier of around 50,000 pages to UEFA in June 2026 containing (according to Real) “overwhelming evidence and circumstantial evidence” of Barça’s alleged misconduct, and demanded severe punishment.
Background: Between 2001 and 2018, the Catalans had paid around 7.5 million euros to José Maria Enriquez Negreira, then vice-president of the Spanish Referees’ Association. Allegedly, this was so that he would draw up reports on referees. Presumably, to persuade Negreira to secure favourable referees or decisions in Barça’s favour.
Barça still under pressure in the “Negreira case”
A case that is no longer subject to legal proceedings due to the three-year limitation period under Spanish sports law. Which is why Barça faces neither forced relegation nor a points deduction.
Criminally, however, the case has been smouldering since 2023, with Real Madrid acting as a joint plaintiff – which led Laporta to claim that Real Madrid was, in an allusion to General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship between 1939 and 1975, simply a “club of the regime” . Political accusations below the belt are not uncommon in Spain; there is little cause for concern regarding moral outrage from the general public or even serious consequences.
Possible trial not until late 2027
A possible trial in the Negreira case is not expected before autumn 2027. What Real considers scandalous – and which has led Real Madrid TV to refer to “La Liga Negreira” for years – culminated, most recently during the 4–1 victory over Sevilla, in Real’s club-organised supporters’ section chanting slogans such as “Tebas, vete ya” (Tebas, get lost), “Tebas, dimision” (Tebas, resign), “Laporta sigue pagando” (“Laporta is still paying”) or “Negreira sigue pitando” (“Negreira is still refereeing”). One banner read: “No es futbol, es Tebas y Negreira” (“It’s not football, it’s Tebas and Negreira”). Written in blue and red, the colours of FC Barcelona.
Tebas is accused of wanting to sweep the Negreira case under the carpet. An accusation that does not sound implausible, given that, following Barca’s withdrawal from the Super League in the spring, the club became a viable ally for Tebas against Real Madrid president Pérez.
Especially as Barça, having failed to comply with the league’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules for years due to excessive debt, exorbitant wage costs and operating losses, had regained its ability to operate this season for the first time in five years – though, following massive investments (Anthony Gordon, Rodri, Karim Adeyemi), it now has hardly any leeway under FFP again.
Pérez had previously ignored the “Negreira affair”
However, this is an accusation that Perez must also face. For until Barça’s withdrawal from the Super League, he himself had ignored the “Negreira affair” – a diplomatic reticence for which Perez was criticised by his then rival candidate, Enrique Riquelme, during the presidential election in June.
According to reports, Perez even helped Barça survive financially during its financial crisis, both financially and through the expertise of Perez’s adviser, Anas Laghrari. These allegations are largely substantiated. The damage to his reputation hit Perez hard and made him bitter – towards Barça and towards Tebas.