Javier Tebas has never been shy about picking fights with football's governing bodies, but this week the LaLiga president went further than usual: Gianni Infantino, he said flatly, "must go" because FIFA under his watch is "destroying football."

Tebas made the remarks in an interview with an Italian sports daily, days after Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time to win the 2026 World Cup final in New Jersey, and he used the moment to lay out a lengthy charge sheet against FIFA's stewardship of the game.

"FIFA organises things for its own interests, not for football, and if they need a 27-minute break, they take it," Tebas said, taking aim specifically at the mid-half hydration breaks introduced for matches at this summer's tournament.

He dismissed the pauses as "a farce, an advertising break," pointing out that LaLiga only uses similar stoppages in genuine heat emergencies, whereas several World Cup venues — among them stadiums in Dallas, Los Angeles and Atlanta — had air conditioning. Infantino has defended the breaks throughout the tournament, insisting the heat across U.S. host cities made them necessary for player welfare.

Tebas reserved some of his sharpest words for what he called the "Balogun affair," the FIFA disciplinary saga that became one of the tournament's most contentious sideshows.

USMNT forward Folarin Balogun was sent off with a straight red card in the group stage against Bosnia and Herzegovina, triggering an automatic one-match ban for the last-16 tie against Belgium. President Donald Trump then phoned Infantino personally to ask for a review, saying publicly that he "didn't think it was a foul." FIFA responded by suspending the ban for a year-long probationary period, clearing Balogun to play. The United States lost the match anyway, 4-1, but the reversal drew accusations that FIFA had bent to political pressure on the eve of a knockout game.

Tebas argued the episode could have cost Infantino his job outright. "They were lucky Belgium eliminated the United States," he said, suggesting a deeper American run would have kept the Balogun ruling — and the call behind it — in the headlines through the rest of the tournament.

The LaLiga president also took aim at FIFA's push to expand the World Cup to 64 teams, arguing the plan would further squeeze a calendar already strained by domestic competitions that employ far more players, coaches and staff than international football does.

Yet Tebas conceded that removing Infantino is, in practice, close to impossible. He described FIFA's internal structure as "a system sick from its origin," in which national federations remain loyal to the incumbent and no credible rival is willing to run only to lose.

It is not a new fight. Tebas has clashed publicly with FIFA and UEFA for years over the international calendar and the concentration of power at the top of the game, and his comments this week add another chapter to a rivalry that has only sharpened in the days since Spain lifted the trophy.