La Liga president slams Real Madrid for complaints about referees

By: Joseph Wilson, The Associated Press Posted: 10:30 AM CST Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish league president Javier Tebas lashed out at Real Madrid on Thursday, saying the club leadership has “lost its mind” for accusing Spain's referees of being biased against the defending champion.

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This article was published 06/02/2025 (603 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish league president Javier Tebas lashed out at Real Madrid on Thursday, saying the club leadership has “lost its mind” for accusing Spain’s referees of being biased against the defending champion.

The head of La Liga said it was considering taking legal action for the letter that Madrid published this week in which it accused the league of being “adulterated” to favor other clubs.

Tebas told reporters, “They have built up an exaggerated tale of victimization that is completely baseless with, in my opinion, the goal of undermining the competition. It is completely over the top. They have lost their minds.”

Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe, left, reacts as Espanyol's goalkeeper Joan Garcia, centre and Urko Gonzalez celebrate Carlos Romero's opening goal during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Espanyol and Real Madrid at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday Feb.1, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

The letter was sent two days after Madrid felt it was hurt by alleged refereeing mistakes in a 1-0 loss at Espanyol. Madrid mostly complained of a hard foul on Kylian Mbappé by Espanyol defender Carlos Romero in the 60th minute. Romero was shown a yellow card but Madrid felt he should have been sent off with a straight red card. Romero went on to score the winner.

After a video review, the officiating crew considered the yellow card was appropriate. Madrid said in its four-page letter that the performance of the VAR and the officiating crew was “scandalous.”

The club said the refereeing in the Espanyol game represented the “culmination of a completely discredited refereeing system whose decisions against Real Madrid have reached a point that the adulteration and manipulation of the competition cannot be ignored.”

Also, Madrid published a four-minute video on its club website titled “The global scandal continues to escalate” of clips of the foul by Romero on Mbappé and quotes for media outlets that considered it worth of a red card.

Tebas hit back at Real Madrid’s club television for routinely producing video packages that allegedly showed how certain referees made calls against the team. He said Real Madrid TV “calls referees corrupt.”

Madrid collected its 36th Spanish league title and its 15th European Cup – both records – last season. It leads La Liga by one point before playing second-placed Atletico Madrid on Saturday.

Rival fans — and most neutrals — have been puzzled by Madrid’s complaints about being systematically hurt by the refs.

“It’s just silly,” Atletico forward Antoine Griezmann said about the letter.

“We have to leave the referees alone. They have enough on their hands dealing with us players to on top of that have to handle this silliness from off the pitch.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer