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BARCELONA: Spanish league president Javier Tebas lashed out at Real Madrid on Thursday, saying the club leadership has “lost its mind” for accusing Spain’s referees of being biased against the defending champion.
The head of La Liga said it was considering taking legal action for the letter that Madrid published this week in which they accused the league of being “adulterated” to favor other clubs.
Tebas told reporters, “They have built up an exaggerated tale of victimization that is completely baseless with, in my opinion, the goal of undermining the competition. It is completely over the top. They have lost their minds.”
The letter was sent two days after Madrid felt they were hurt by alleged refereeing mistakes in a 1-0 loss at Espanyol. Madrid mostly complained of a hard foul on Kylian Mbappé by Espanyol defender Carlos Romero in the 60th minute. Romero was shown a yellow card but Madrid felt he should have been sent off with a straight red card. Romero went on to score the winner.
After a video review, the officiating crew considered the yellow card was appropriate. Madrid said in their four-page letter that the performance of the VAR and the officiating crew was “scandalous.”
The club said the refereeing in the Espanyol game represented the “culmination of a completely discredited refereeing system whose decisions against Real Madrid have reached a point that the adulteration and manipulation of the competition cannot be ignored.”
Also, Madrid published a four-minute video on their club website titled “The global scandal continues to escalate” of clips of the foul by Romero on Mbappé and quotes for media outlets that considered it worth of a red card.
Tebas hit back at Real Madrid’s club television for routinely producing video packages that allegedly showed how certain referees made calls against the team. He said Real Madrid TV “calls referees corrupt.”
Madrid collected their 36th Spanish league title and their 15th European Cup – both records – last season. They lead La Liga by one point before playing second-placed Atletico Madrid on Saturday.
Rival fans — and most neutrals — have been puzzled by Madrid’s complaints about being systematically hurt by the refs.
“It’s just silly,” Atletico forward Antoine Griezmann said about the letter.
“We have to leave the referees alone. They have enough on their hands dealing with us players to on top of that have to handle this silliness from off the pitch.”

MADRID: Spain's Supreme Court has upheld an appeal by the new president of the country's scandal-ridden soccer federation (RFEF), Rafael Louzan, against his conviction on charges of malfeasance and a seven-year ban.
The decision saves the RFEF from further embarrassment and the need for a new election.
Louzan was elected in December despite a previous lower court verdict against him after more than a year of turmoil at the football governing body following the downfall of former chief Luis Rubiales and his right-hand man Pedro Rocha.
The Supreme Court, which had taken up Louzan's appeal before his election, said on Thursday it had annulled the lower court ruling that barred Louzan from holding public office for seven years in a case involving a contract to improve a football pitch in the northwestern city of Morana in 2011.
The contractor undertook improvements not initially foreseen and after the works were completed, the provincial authority of Pontevedra, led by Louzan, called a new tender with the intention of awarding it to the company that had already done the job.
The Supreme Court said in its ruling that the decision to grant a new subsidy for works not initially foreseen did not constitute the crime of malfeasance as the authorities were already required to pay for the works done.
The Spanish government had said that were the Supreme Court to confirm Louzan's previous conviction it would seek new elections at the soccer federation.
Louzan, who is leading the RFEF as Spain gears up to co-host the 2030 World Cup, did not immediately answer a request for comment.
The court ruling comes in the same week as Louzan's predecessor Rubiales went on trial at Madrid's High Court, where he stands accused of sexual assault against player Jenni Hermoso after kissing her on the lips at the 2023 Women's World Cup awards ceremony in Australia.
He is also accused of attempting to coerce Hermoso - with the help of three other men - into declaring that the kiss had been consensual.
The episode eclipsed Spain's first women's World Cup victory and has triggered a national backlash against sexism in sport. Rubiales denies those criminal charges.