Xavier Tebas Medrano,[2][1] better known as Javier Tebas (Spanish pronunciation: [xaˈβjeɾ ˈteβas]; born 31 July 1962), is a Spanish lawyer and the president of Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, the association responsible for administering Spain's two highest-tier professional football leagues.
[6] Prior to the election, Tebas had promised to clean up the Spanish game after match-fixing allegations, and also to make match tickets affordable.
During his student days, he was a provincial delegate of the far-right party's youth, Fuerza Nueva, a reminiscence of Franco's regime nostalgics.
Among the key initiatives to have been introduced since he took the role of vice president (and later president) are: economic restructuring of the clubs and financing of La Liga,[16] achieved by the centralised sale of television broadcasting rights;[17] tough measures against match-fixing;[18] establishing policies to tackle violence or abuse in the stadiums;[19] and digitalization and multimedia development that allows fans to interact with the clubs across multiple channels.
For this task, Tebas called upon Javier Gomez, former vice president of Valencia, appointing him as his second in command and managing director with the responsibility of enforcing the new internal regulations.
Since his arrival, LaLiga has become richer, more democratic in its distribution of money, more rigorous with its contracts, more professional in how it stages matches and more respectful of its sense of identity.
In order to increase its television audience, match schedules were adapted so that the games did not coincide with each other and could each have a distinct kick-off time; these measures were applauded internationally but drew criticism among Spanish viewers.
[8][24] La Liga's attempts to organize and hold a match in Miami[25] have so far been stopped by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), who are against it.
[27] Tebas was critical of former UEFA acting president Ángel María Villar,[28] who also headed the Royal Spanish Football Federation for many years.
In May of the same year, all of the national leagues in Europe met in Madrid, at an event coordinated by La Liga, to express their disapproval of any such plans.
[37] On 21 May 2023, Real Madrid striker Vinicius Jr stated that Spain was seen as "a nation of racists" in Brazil after being racially abused by Valencia fans earlier that day.