November 27 – Mercurial LaLiga president Javier Tebas has resigned his presidency in a move that will trigger a new election which will see him look to win a fourth term.
Tebas has been president of LaLiga since 2013, having been re-elected in 2016 and 2019 unopposed.
With the support of the vast majority of LaLiga’s clubs it is expected he will be unopposed again. No date has been set for the election.
In a post on social media, he said: “A few minutes ago I presented my resignation as President of @LaLiga prior to the end of my term, which ended on December 23.
“A new electoral process will open in which I will present myself, so I will request the endorsement and trust of the clubs to take on the challenges at hand.”
Tebas has been responsible for a major overhaul of the Spanish league’s commercial activities including centralising broadcast rights sales as well as more recently bringing in more than $1 billion in private investment as he has sought to increase the professionalism and commercial sustainability of his clubs.
That hasn’t made him universally popular in Spain where he has often been at odds with the Spanish federation (RFEF) and the financial ambitions of his two dominant clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid.
He has also been very vocal internationally, being prepared to take on state-sponsored clubs (like PSG and Manchester City) who said are distorting the competitive balance of football, as well as being a bitter critic of the proposed
At the same time he has driven a commercially aggressive international expansion programme that has seen LaLiga increase overseas exposure for the league as well as broadcast and sponsorship revenue.
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