Tebas criticises Real Madrid over its silence on manipulation suspicions

The Liga president said telephone recordings from 2010, linked to Hércules’ president, explicitly referred to result manipulation. He criticised Real Madrid for neither opening an investigation nor taking a firm position at the time. The criticism underpins his objections to the club’s description of the Negreira case.

Javier Tebas also challenged remarks by Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, who had called the Negreira case the worst in the history of Spanish football. Tebas said the Madrid club had not acted in cases of manipulation that he considers more serious than this one.

To explain his assessment, the Liga president pointed to the period from 2008 to 2013. He described those years as involving cases of manipulation and suspicious matches, including attempts to buy top-flight survival and avoid relegation. In his view, that was the most dangerous period in the history of the game at national level.

Tebas also argued that Real Madrid’s legal and aggressive actions had emerged only after Barcelona withdrew from the Super League project. His remarks contrast the club’s current response with what he says was its failure to take initiative over the suspicions surrounding Hércules in 2010.