Here we go again. Javier Tebas has always despised Real Madrid, and he has been really active with his behavior this past month. He was heavily critical of Madrid’s involvement in the Club World Cup, disallowed the plea to delay the season opener, and is now back with another dig.
La Liga have come up with the idea of hosting a Spanish league game between FC Barcelona and Villarreal not in Spain, not in Europe, but in the United States. Why? Probably because the US is a developing market for football and they want to capture it, but hosting a league game on foreign soil makes little sense.
Real Madrid released a statement opposing this proposal on the grounds of a very clear violation of the basic principle of a league system: one game at home and another away. Playing a league game in the USA of all places is absurd and clearly breaks that principle.
And to this statement, Tebas has come out with a response that is hilarious because it makes no sense at all. And this is not the first laughable thing that he has said this year.
Javier Tebas is back with another Real Madrid dig that makes no sense at all
In an interview with Radio Nacional, Tebas rejected Real Madrid’s rejection and tried to point out similar acts supposedly done by the club, except they didn’t.
Tebas said, “During COVID, the only team allowed to change stadiums to move forward with construction was Real Madrid. Did that affect the competition? No. I don't understand all the fuss.”
So let me get this straight. Tebas is comparing moving a league game to an entirely different continent without any sporting reason to Real Madrid shifting their home matches to another stadium in the same city due to construction work. He thinks these two are the same and calls out Real Madrid’s supposed hypocrisy by it?
Not only are these things not comparable in the slightest, this is sheer whataboutery that makes no sense.
The truth is that moving a league game abroad is not good. It deprives the home team’s fans of watching a match on their own turf and completely undermines sporting fairness.
If moving the Copa de Espana to Saudi Arabia was not absurd enough, La Liga have now tried to match it with another foolish decision of their own.