Tebas escalates war of words with Perez over FIFA broadcast plans and CVC deal

Javier Tebas has launched a fierce attack on Real Madrid president Florentino Perez after the Spanish club criticised FIFA’s decision to abandon plans to sell part of its audiovisual broadcast rights and renewed its opposition to La Liga’s agreement with investment firm CVC.

The latest exchange has reopened the long-running dispute between the president of La Liga and the leader of Real Madrid, with Tebas also targeting the club’s Moroccan financial adviser, Anas Al Ghari, and US bank JP Morgan.

Tebas used social media to publish a strongly worded post headed “A creature who is not that great”, a sarcastic and direct reference to Perez. His comments questioned the timing of Real Madrid’s statement and raised the possibility of a connection between Al Ghari’s presence in New York and JP Morgan’s involvement in the matter.

“By the way, why did the response take so long? What was Anas doing in New York during the week of the final? And is it a coincidence that JP Morgan is also involved in this process, as happened with the Super League?” Tebas wrote.

The reference was to the failed European Super League project, which was financed by the American banking institution. Real Madrid were among the clubs at the centre of the breakaway competition, alongside Barcelona and Juventus, although the original article specifically identifies the project as one involving JP Morgan’s financial backing.

Tebas also rejected what he described as Real Madrid’s attempt to “rewrite the narrative” surrounding La Liga’s CVC agreement.

He insisted that the deal had been entirely voluntary and that every club had been free either to join or reject it. Real Madrid chose not to participate, Tebas said, and was not required to allocate a single euro of its income to the agreement.

In the most pointed section of his statement, Tebas accused Real Madrid of applying what he called “blatant double standards” when discussing the deal.

“The principle seems simple: when Real Madrid freely decides to join, it is considered an update and a financial strategy; but when other clubs freely decide to join, it is considered a burden,” he said.

The La Liga president also mocked the repeated legal disputes brought by Real Madrid against the league, describing the club’s approach as a “pathological obsession”.

“What an obsession with La Liga! Perhaps it comes from losing lawsuits and complaints one after another, year after year, and filing complaints that have not even managed to remove the league president,” Tebas said.

He then questioned Perez’s credibility in any debate about the future of football.

“The creature who is not superior no longer has much credibility to lecture us about the future of football,” Tebas wrote, using another sarcastic reference to the Real Madrid president.

He ended by recalling the collapse of the Super League project and ridiculing the argument that it was needed to rescue the sport.

“Do you remember when the Super League was supposed to save us because football was bankrupt? What a vision!” he said.

The latest confrontation adds another chapter to the long-running series of public disputes and legal battles between Tebas and Perez. Their disagreement reflects a deep division within Spanish football over how the game should be financed, governed and developed, and there is little indication that the conflict will end soon.