Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga, woke up to fresh headlines that challenge his public image once again. A digital outlet resurfaced an old dispute involving Real Mallorca and the highest executive of the league’s employers’ association at the time. The publication reported that Tebas received 232,000 euros from Vermilion assets in 2008 for a questionable item described as a “player report and research into the Argentine market,” routed through his company Esfinge Veinte.
Although the disclosure did not add new facts beyond what was already known, the issue resurfaced after remarks by Luis Rubiales, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation. Rubiales accused Tebas of echoing accusations from several clubs within La Liga, including Real Mallorca.
In response, Tebas prepared a defense and shared a contemporaneous story from Majorca Newspaper on his social media. The article, published on April 10, 2014, included Tebas’s timely statement addressing the allegations against him.
In his note, the manager asserted that the 232,000 euros were paid for a purpose tied to interference in the transfer of Guillermo Pereyra at the request of Real Mallorca to the players’ managers, rather than to a supposed report on Argentine league players.
Nevertheless, additional details published in the same outlet cast doubt on certain aspects of the defense, showing that the signature of Pedro Teras, the company’s manager at the time, did not appear on the invoice linked to Pereyra’s transfer, while the payment for the alleged Argentine league report bore another signature.
“I’m telling you, Jorge Calabrés, you are very ‘lazy’,” Tebas’s message suggested, reflecting broader media coverage from nine years earlier. He referenced the publication and implied that the La Liga leadership may have had business ties with other clubs. He also argued that comparing La Liga with the CTA was misguided, noting that La Liga’s vice presidency involves representing a club and that his professional background is public, transparent, and compliant. The claim of concealment or muddying information was rejected in his follow-up remarks.
The social media post that included Tebas’s sentiments also cited a well-known tweet, where Tebas urged readers to consider the full context and the prior coverage that had already clarified the situation. The post underscored Tebas’s stance that the league’s leadership maintains independence from any single club while fostering relationships across the sport.
Historically, Tebas’s involvement in Mallorca goes back to 2008 when he, through Esfinge Veinte, held a stake in the club. This stake represented a portion of Mallorca’s shares that Tebas acquired from the club’s then football director at the time, Mateu Germany, while maintaining strong ties with Mallorca’s leadership. This history has contributed to ongoing scrutiny of Tebas’s connections, influence, and the broader governance dynamics within La Liga and its relationships with other clubs.