Spanish league president Javier Tebas criticized Real Madrid on Thursday, saying the club’s leadership had “lost its mind” for accusing Spain’s referees of being biased against the defending champion.
Tebas, head of La Liga, said the league was considering legal action after Madrid published a letter accusing 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.”
The letter was sent after Madrid felt harmed by alleged referee mistakes during their 1-0 loss to Espanyol. Madrid mainly complained about a hard foul on Kylian Mbappé by Espanyol defender Carlos Romero in the 60th minute. Romero was given a yellow card, but Madrid thought he should have been sent off with a red card. Romero went on to score the winning goal.
After reviewing the incident, the referees decided the yellow card was correct. In its four-page letter, Madrid called the VAR and officiating performance “scandalous.”
The club stated that the refereeing in the Espanyol game showed “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.”
Madrid also posted a four-minute video on its website titled “The global scandal continues to escalate.” The video showed the foul on Mbappé and included quotes from media outlets that thought the foul deserved a red card.
Tebas responded to Real Madrid TV for frequently showing videos claiming certain referees made calls against the team. He said Madrid TV “calls referees corrupt.”
Madrid won its 36th Spanish league title and its 15th European Cup last season, both records. It currently leads La Liga by one point before playing second-place Atletico Madrid on Saturday.
Fans from rival teams, as well as many neutrals, have found Madrid’s complaints about being hurt by the referees puzzling.
“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.”
