Madrid’s derby dispute has moved beyond the Metropolitano pitch, with Real Madrid issuing sharp public responses to LaLiga president Javier Tebas and broadcaster Juanma Castaño two days after the club’s 2-1 defeat away to Atlético de Madrid.
The seventh-round meeting was already marked by complaints over referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias. José Mourinho took the argument into his post-match press conference, presenting two images of incidents he believed had been judged incorrectly.
Tebas declined to state definitively whether Mourinho would face disciplinary action. He criticised the manner of the complaints, however, and said refereeing decisions had not been responsible for Madrid losing the derby. Real Madrid answered on Tuesday, September 22, with a statement describing the LaLiga president’s stance as intolerable.
Madrid accuse Tebas of repeated attacks
Real Madrid said Tebas had used his institutional office to discredit and attack the club repeatedly in his public appearances. The club argued that such comments were damaging and especially troubling from the person charged with representing and protecting the interests of every LaLiga side.
In its statement, Madrid said Tebas had become repeatedly fixated on the club, making it a constant target of public criticism. The Spanish champions also objected to what they saw as his assessment of their sporting strategy, calling that intervention wholly irresponsible.
The club said LaLiga’s president should instead work to strengthen confidence in the competition’s institutions and safeguard impartiality. Madrid added that his conduct was harming the worldwide standing of Spanish football and LaLiga.
“Spanish professional football urgently needs a leader capable of running the competition and developing its full potential, with the basic duty of neutrality,” Madrid said in its message.
Separate complaint over Castaño column
Tebas was not the only figure criticised by Real Madrid on Tuesday morning. In a separate statement, the club addressed comments made by Juanma Castaño in an ABC column concerning Real Madrid TV.
Castaño had compared the club channel to “the Gara newspaper of ultra-Florentinismo” and wrote that it was calling for Madrid to leave domestic competitions. Real Madrid described the comparison as exceptionally serious and said it crossed every acceptable boundary.
The club said it reserved the right to take whatever measures it considered appropriate in response to what it called an unacceptable attack.
