10 of the most powerful people in world football

#9 Javier Tebas

Tebas has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately

Many will recognise Tebas’s name from the recent inflammatory comments he made about Barcelona players, but the Costa Rican-born lawyer is also president of the governing body that oversees both the Spanish top-flight and the Segunda Division.

As president of the division that boasts of 2 of the biggest teams in world football – Barcelona and Real Madrid – Tebas has become one of the most powerful men in European and world football, apparently wielding more influence than Spanish FA president Angel Maria Villar.

One of Tebas’s fundamental goals has been to “clean up the game”, rooting out the corruption prevalent in Spanish football and reducing the financial disparity between the two biggest sides and the rest of the division.