Javier Tebas has launched a fresh attack on Real Madrid. The La Liga president hit back at the escalating rhetoric within the club and its friendly media outlets over refereeing decisions, rejecting the narrative that the team is being deliberately targeted.
For Tebas, the ongoing controversy over officials distracts attention from the technical problems that have surfaced in Real Madrid's performances during the opening weeks of the season.
Responding to the recent criticism from Madrid on social media, Tebas took aim at what he called an attempt to build "the story of the permanent conspiracy".
He said: "When it isn't Negreira, it's the referee, and when it isn't that, he isn't international," a nod to the various justifications trotted out by the club and those close to it when the subject turns to refereeing.
Every club in La Liga, Tebas insisted, can be officiated by international or non-international referees. No club has the right to pick the man who takes charge of its matches, or to object to a referee simply because he doesn't match its preferences or expectations.
Turning to Real Madrid's place in the competition, the La Liga chief acknowledged the club's huge role in the league's history and its global pull. But he refused to reduce the value of the competition to Real Madrid's presence alone, arguing that La Liga does not draw its importance from a single club.
Tebas said: "Real Madrid is very important to La Liga, but to say that La Liga has no value without it reflects contempt for the other clubs, their fans and their history. The competition is not owned by anyone."
He was sharper still on the idea that Real Madrid are the target of referees. The argument, he said, lacks logic and rests on no evidence of a deliberate policy against the club. "To claim that referees are directed against Real Madrid is like you're living in another galaxy."
Repeated talk of a refereeing bias against Real Madrid, in his view, simply provides cover for avoiding the real problems that have emerged within the team, whether in performance, results or the way matches are managed.
Tebas added: "That story works as an alibi to cover up the other shortcomings that appear at first glance in these opening matches of the season. It is more comfortable to point to a conspiracy instead of explaining what is happening on the pitch."
Closing his defence, Tebas argued that refereeing errors, even when repeated across several matches or over years, prove nothing about an organised conspiracy against Real Madrid.
He said: "A refereeing error does not prove a conspiracy, nor does its repetition for years make it true."