La Liga president Javier Tebas has dismissed suggestions that referees are being directed against Real Madrid, calling the idea an excuse for the club’s poor start to the season rather than an honest reading of its problems on the pitch.
Tebas made the remarks on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, responding on social media to a pro-Real article that questioned the fairness of officiating. His comments came two days after Real’s 2-1 loss to Atletico Madrid in the derby at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano, a result that has reopened a long-running quarrel between the league and the 15-time European champions.
“Claiming that referees are directed against Real Madrid is living in another galaxy,” Tebas said. He argued that the conspiracy narrative served as a cover. “That story works as an excuse to cover up the other shortcomings that are immediately visible in these first matches of the season. It is more comfortable to point to a conspiracy than to explain what is happening on the pitch.”
He went further in a lengthy post on X, taking aim at what he called “the mouthpieces and the regime’s television” for building the same story again. Tebas said no club was entitled to officiating tailored to its own interests. “All clubs can be officiated by international referees and by those who aren’t. None has the right to on-demand refereeing,” he said, adding that the competition belonged to no one.
The row was set off by Real manager Jose Mourinho, who brought printed screenshots to his post-match news conference to argue that Atletico should have been reduced to nine men before the interval. Mourinho pointed to two incidents, a clash between Cristian Romero and Jude Bellingham and a challenge by Lee Kang-in on Federico Valverde, which he felt warranted red cards.
“We can skip the press conference because the story of the match is right here,” Mourinho told reporters while holding up the images. He said the pair “were two clear red cards” and questioned how the game might have unfolded had Atletico played most of it a man or two down.
The match itself turned against Real after the break. Defender Dean Huijsen was sent off five minutes into the second half for bringing down Giuliano Simeone in the box, and Alejandro Grimaldo converted the resulting penalty. Jonathan David added a second for Atletico, and Antonio Rudiger’s late strike proved only a consolation.
Real’s public response was blunt. The club’s own match report, carried on its channels, was headlined around a poor refereeing display deciding the derby. Atletico answered with a social media post captioned “Stop referee harassment now”, paired with a video of an image emerging from a printer, a pointed jab at Mourinho’s props.
The defeat left Real fourth on 15 points, six behind leaders Barcelona, who have won all seven of their opening league fixtures. Atletico climbed to second on 16 after the win, a table position that lends weight to Tebas’s argument that the club’s difficulties are competitive rather than the product of biased officiating.
This is far from the first clash between Tebas and the Santiago Bernabeu. He has repeatedly crossed swords with Real and its president, Florentino Perez, most sharply over the proposed European Super League. In an earlier dispute over officiating, after Real lodged a formal complaint with the Spanish Football Federation, Tebas said the club had “lost their head” over the matter.
Tebas closed his latest intervention by conceding that refereeing errors do occur, while insisting they do not amount to an organised campaign against any single club, even when similar mistakes recur across matches. His central point was that repeated focus on the referees was drawing attention away from questions about Real’s form, results and game management in the opening weeks.
For now the argument sits where it began, as a contest of narratives. Real and its allies frame the season’s early setbacks around officiating, while the league insists the evidence points to shortcomings on the field. With the international break underway, both sides will have time to let the dispute cool, though the pattern of recent years suggests it will resurface at the next contentious call.