Real Madrid could consider leaving La Liga over referee complaints | OneFootball

Real Madrid have been tipped to consider the possibility of leaving La Liga over allegations of a perceived agenda against the club in Spanish football led by league president Javier Tebas.

Alongside great rivals Barcelona, Madrid still cling to the 'Super League' project that spectacularly failed to get off the ground in the spring of 2021 after nine of the 12 founder members immediately abandoned it amid an enormous public backlash. Juventus eventually gave up last year.

But SPORT claims that Madrid feel "exasperated" in Spain, an apparent "victim of a system that punishes it above all others". The club is said to feel that Tebas has "united all the clubs against them", supposedly made clear by his response to a letter protesting against refereeing.

Spain's Liga Nacional de Futbol Profesional (LFP), the body that organises and oversees the country's top two divisions is also allegedly "united against" Real Madrid in the club's eyes.

While Madrid also continue to "study" how to make the Super League work, leaving La Liga for another domestic competition abroad would not be an easy process either. It would require permission from FIFA to leave the Spanish system, as well as a welcoming host and approval from UEFA, with whom the club is described as still "at war" with over the Super League fiasco.

Florentino Perez has remained a key driver of the Super League / Mateusz Slodkowski/GettyImages

Theoretically, the club could "request asylum" – the emotive language used by SPORT painting a picture of some great injustice and witch hunt – in the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 or Serie A. The declared upside for any of those leagues would be a greater sporting level and raised profile to boost income.

An expatriated club playing in a foreign league is not unheard of, but it is rare and typically at lower levels. A number of teams from Andorra, including Gerard Pique-owned FC Andorra, are members of Spain's football pyramid underneath La Liga, while Cardiff City, Swansea City and Wrexham are prominent examples of Welsh clubs playing in England below the Premier League.

There are also three Canadian clubs – Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps, and CF Montreal – in Major League Soccer, although Canadian involvement in American leagues is common across several sports.

In the case of AS Monaco, there is no domestic football competition in the sovereign microstate, so the club has played in the French football system since it was founded in 1924.