How can Real Madrid be asked to trust in the neutrality of the Spanish league association when its president publicly says his relationship with the club is "beyond repair"? This is not a crisis between Real Madrid and Javier Tebas, nor a new dispute over refereeing. It is, in my view, a crisis of trust in the neutrality of the institution itself.
Tebas has every right to disagree with Real Madrid, to criticise its statements and its positions. But is it normal for the president of the association to become a permanent party in an open conflict with one of the clubs whose interests he is supposed to represent collectively?
Picture the strangeness of it. Imagine an elected president of parliament announcing that his relationship with a parliamentary bloc would remain "beyond repair" as long as its leader stayed in his post, then constantly coming out to respond to and attack that bloc before public opinion.
Attack instead of apology
Return to the origin of the crisis. Tebas dislikes the anger Real Madrid expressed and its strong attack on refereeing over the events of the derby. But what did the club do other than defend its rights in the manner it sees fit?
You can disagree with Real Madrid's style in expressing its anger, and you can consider some of its statements and the remarks of its officials to be exaggerated at times. Yet one fact cannot be overlooked: the refereeing in the derby saw errors that the referees' committee itself later acknowledged.
That is why I believe Real Madrid has the right to take whatever escalatory steps it deems necessary to demand these errors are not repeated. They had a direct impact on the result of the match, and therefore on the title race.
I also stress that an acknowledged refereeing error does not mean all of Real Madrid's accusations are correct. But it gives the club the right to object and to demand a review of the system.
Tebas is angry because he believes Real Madrid's accusations against the referees affect the mental image of LaLiga. He has not sought, in my view, to make a genuine contribution to solving the refereeing problem that has harmed the Whites and other clubs. On the contrary, he always comes out to say "we have the best referees in the world", as if he is burying his head in the sand, merely to oppose Real Madrid.
Nor has Real Madrid received, so far, an official apology for the refereeing errors that were publicly acknowledged. Compare that with the Manchester derby a few days ago. Here lies one of the differences between the Premier League and LaLiga.
Look at the Premier League
Perhaps the real difference here does not concern any specific person so much as the way the competition is managed. In England, when an influential refereeing error occurs, there is a clear space to review and acknowledge it, rather than turning the discussion into an open battle with the affected club. That is exactly what happened recently when Howard Webb, the official responsible for refereeing in the English league, admitted there was an error in one of the controversial cases during the Manchester derby.
I am not saying the Premier League has become error-free, nor that English football has reached an ideal model in dealing with refereeing. The idea is simply this: the strength of any competition is not measured by the number of times its officials come out to defend it, but by its ability to acknowledge the error, address it, and preserve the clubs' trust in it.
This is why I believe the top official of the association should be closer to an arbiter between the parties of the system, not an additional party in the conflict.
Never once have we seen an official of the English league association come out publicly to attack Manchester City, for example, even though the club stands accused in cases related to financial fair play.
The ordinary public probably does not even know the names of the Premier League association's officials, because they appear little in the media. Contrast that with Tebas, who loves the spotlight, and whose account on the "X" platform appears more active than necessary, given his sensitive position.
"Oppose to be known"
I believe Tebas wanted to drag Real Madrid into a media crisis of this kind, to settle his personal disputes with president Florentino Pérez. That became clearly evident from his recent statements, in which he said the relationship would not be repaired as long as Pérez remained in the "Santiago Bernabéu" fortress.
Tebas also wants to appear as the official who is not afraid to stand against the "strongest entity" in Spain, as he described it in his latest statement, even if this entity is defending its rights. He opposes for the sake of opposing, in keeping with the principle of "oppose to be known".
Tebas says in more than one media appearance that he has been "a Real Madrid fan since childhood", though it is also illogical for the president of the association to reveal his allegiance to a particular club. The truth is that this announcement is nothing more than a screen behind which he shelters in order to attack the Whites and its officials.
It is time to leave
Tebas is not a manager employed above the clubs, but a president elected by the general assembly of "LaLiga". The association's official information states that its president is elected for a period of 4 years, and the statutes also mention that the term can end, among other reasons, through a vote of no confidence.
So removing Tebas is necessary at the present time, before his personal disputes with Real Madrid and its president affect the fairness of the competition in LaLiga.
We want the competition to remain within the framework of the pitch, rather than becoming linked to external matters far from the sporting rivalry we have known. Spanish football needs an association president who is above the conflicts, not inside them.