Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, stated that he feels “grief” due to the competitive level of the Argentine First Division tournament, as said this Thursday during a public presentation at the Olé Summit Argentina 2025 convention, organized by said sports newspaper in Buenos Aires.
“I feel sorry for how a country with so much passion, so many fans and a feeling of belonging unparalleled in the world, does not have the performance to become a world power at club level. They are world champions but those players should be playing here,” Tebas stated in reference to the figures of the Argentine national team, who mostly play in Europe.
According to Tebas, the Argentine League should be among the “six or seven first in the world”, which, in his opinion, means that “things are not going well” in the South American country.
Currently, the Professional Football League of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) consists of 30 teams that compete in two tournaments, Apertura and Clausura, and are divided into two zones of fifteen, of which the 16 best go to a knockout stage of round of 16, quarterfinals, semis and final.
Recommends the entry of investment funds
Tebas added that the entry of investment funds into LaLiga was beneficial to improve the clubs’ infrastructure, and recommended the same path for Argentines: “It is very important that the clubs are economically sustainable. And the funds do not make investments in property, they go for a portion of the profits.”
Precisely this Thursday the president of the AFA, Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia surprisingly awarded to Central Rosary the title of annual champion of 2025 for having been the team that added the most points in the regular stages of the Apertura and Clausura tournaments, an unprecedented award that had not been announced in advance.
Tebas’ comments on the organization of Argentine football come the day after Tapia himself participated in the Olé Summit, in which he defended the level of play in local league matches and also rejected claims for referee errors in decisive matches, in a phenomenon that players, coaches, club presidents and supporters point out as rigged results.
Fight against piracy
In another part of his speech, Tebas stated that it is necessary “end piracy” of illegal television platforms to not put “the economic system of football is at risk.”
“Soon, Magis TV users are going to be in for a surprise. The same with Fútbol Libre, Pelota Libre, or whatever it’s called now. There’s not much left,” stated Tebas in reference to some of the most used illegal platforms on the internet to view paid content, against which LaLiga has initiated legal proceedings in multiple countries, including Argentina.
Tebas defended the actions of the body that organizes the highest category of Spanish football: “You cannot put football’s economic system at risk with a radical price drop to test whether they stop stealing. There is a lot of piracy on these platforms.”
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The head of LaLiga recalled that a few days ago the Magis TV platform informed its users in Spain and the United States that it would stop operating, so he considered that, based on the progress made by the Argentine Justice on the local providers of that service, the same thing would happen in the country in question.days or weeks.”
In the same sense, he considered that the judicial investigation into the case in Argentina is one of the most advanced in the matter worldwide.
