La Liga president Javier Tebas sounded off on Real Madrid for hosting an NFL game this past weekend after spoiling the canceled La Liga game in Miami.
For Tebas, Real Madrid offering up their newly renovated Santiago Bernabéu stadium for the NFL to use was a clear sign of hypocrisy in the aftermath of their crusade to boycott the Miami game. After seeing his plan for a game played on U.S. soil canceled, Tebas exploded with a 259-word statement on social media.
“We’ve been hearing for weeks how Sunday will be a ‘historic day for Spanish sport’ because the NFL will play in Madrid,” Tebas began.
“The most striking thing: the stadium belongs to the same club that led the crusade of ‘integrity’ against the Miami game ... and now lends it gladly, prior payment of course.
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“At the time they had players and bootlickers repeating the same narrative, with the same expressions of competition adulteration. They sent letters to every institution possible, they only missed complaining to the Pope.
“It’s clear then that the intoxication and lack of future vision won. The problem [of the Miami game] wasn’t integrity, nor tradition nor information: the problem what who was driving it. It was driven by La Liga, an institution that everyone wants to control.”
Javier Tebas
Javier Tebas has directed a number of attacks towards Real Madrid in recent months. / Pablo Cuadra/Getty Images
Villarreal were scheduled to host Barcelona in a 2025–26 La Liga match at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Dec. 20. Real Madrid publicly opposed the match and eventually got their way as Tebas’s dream game crumbled to the ground.
In Tebas’s eyes, an official La Liga game on U.S. soil would be a massive success in every aspect, something he repeated once again amidst his long-winded attack.
“The game in Miami had guaranteed full capacity, an agenda of events the same or greater than the ones of these days [NFL events in Spain prior to the game] and it would’ve helped to internationalize our competition. We were talking about one match out of the 380 La Liga plays across a season.”
It wasn’t just Real Madrid who opposed the Miami game. Players on every team, fans and essentially every club outside of Villarreal and Barcelona were against the project. Still, Tebas won’t give up on seeing the plan he first introduced in 2018 become a reality, ending his statement with three telling words.
“We’ll keep trying.”
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