Real Madrid: anti-Tebas banner at the Bernabéu, LaLiga’s president hits back

On Sunday night at the Santiago Bernabéu, while Real Madrid were seeing off Sevilla 4-1, a banner stayed on display in the stands: «No es fútbol, son Tebas y Negreira». It is not football, it is Tebas and Negreira. Around it, the chants demanded the resignation of the LaLiga president, over an alleged corruption affair that would favour Barcelona.

Tebas replies the same evening

Javier Tebas answered that same evening, in a long message posted on X. “It took only two days for the facts to prove me right,” writes the president of LaLiga since 2013. In his account, the banner came from the «grada de animación», a section of ultras “coordinated and supervised by the club”: an accusation, not an established fact, and Real Madrid have not confirmed it.

The message grows harsher further in. “Highlighting, discrediting and stirring up this hostility amounts to flagrant irresponsibility. Those in charge have a duty to understand the consequences of the messages they spread and amplify,” Tebas writes, in RMC Sport’s translation. He aims at Real Madrid TV and the club’s communication, and criticises Real Madrid for presenting the international coverage of their demand as an endorsement of it.

He closes without backing down: “They can keep calling for my resignation. The questions about their sources, their accusations and the schedules have gone unanswered since 16 October.”

Six days before the Clásico

The backdrop has been set since Friday: after Tebas compared Real Madrid TV’s methods to the propaganda machinery of Nazi Germany, Real Madrid demanded his immediate resignation. The banner’s wording points to the Negreira case, in which José María Enríquez Negreira, vice-president of the referees’ technical committee from 2001 to 2018, received several million euros from Barcelona, who speak of legal consultancy work. A trial could take place in 2027.

The weekend left another mark: Sevilla denounced a refereeing scandal after an elbow from Arda Güler on Peque in the 23rd minute, at 0-0, went unpunished. On Monday the Catalan press took over: Sport claims Real Madrid have teamed up with the referees, Mundo Deportivo denounces a scandal at the Bernabéu.

Real Madrid have not left the league’s table either: the club still sits on LaLiga’s delegated commission, which Barcelona have just joined, Marca reports. The Clásico between the two is on Sunday 25 October, six days after the banner.