Tebas and Madrid president Florentino Pérez have been engaged in a spiky public back-and-forth for years. Just earlier this summer, La Liga refused to grant Real Madrid an extended period of recovery before the 2025–26 campaign despite advancing to the semifinals of this summer’s Club World Cup.

Real Madrid tried long and hard to see their first La Liga game of the new season postponed or rescheduled given the dire shortage of rest in their hectic calendar. After all, it has been just over a