Spanish Professional Football League (LFP) president Javier Tebas has said Cristiano Ronaldo would not have been named La Liga's best player for 2013-14 "if the vote is free."
Ronaldo won a hat trick of awards at Monday 's ceremony, taking the best player, best attacker and best goal prizes -- but eyebrows were raised when no Atletico Madrid player was recognised, despite Los Colchoneros having won the title while Real finished in third.
.@Cristiano, gran triunfador de la 'Gala de los Premios LFP 2014', posó con sus tres galardones. #PremiosLaLiga pic.twitter.com/xcy48rZFnt
- La Liga (@LaLiga) October 27, 2014
The controversy was heightened by a private conversation in which Tebas told referee turned journalist Ignacio Hernandez Hinojosa that the current system favoured Ronaldo's chances of victory.
"I am sure, and this is my opinion, that if the vote is free, Cristiano does not win," Tebas said, unaware that the remarks would be made public.
However, he clarified to AS that the current private way of voting was more honest and therefore the best one.
"What is clear is that the vote should be private," he said. "A Barcelona player is never going to vote for Cristiano Ronaldo, or a Madrid player vote for someone from Barca. The vote like this is more pure. That is the basis of the conversation I had with Hernandez Hinojosa, which I thought was off the record."
Atletico Madrid's Diego Godin had called for the votes -- made by all 20 club captains, usually after conferring with their teammates -- to be made public.
Godin was beaten by Sergio Ramos to the best defender accolade, while teammates including Koke, Diego Costa and Thibaut Courtois also missed out.
"They should have made public who the captains voted for, so it would be transparent and we would not speculate or joke about it," Godin told a news conference. "For me, it would have been fairer if my teammates won, but as we do not know how the captains voted we are just speculating.
"Obviously I would have preferred my teammates to win, but the only objective prize is the Liga winner -- who gets most points -- like the Pichichi for scoring the most goals and the Zamora for conceding the least goals.
"They should make public the nominations of the captains, and that way clear everything up."
There was similar controversy last year, when the LFP created a surprise new award called most valuable player, apparently to boost the relatively new gala event's status by ensuring that the highest-profile player would attend.
Barcelona's Lionel Messi was named La Liga's best player for the 2012-13 campaign -- his fourth consecutive victory in the category -- but did not attend the ceremony used by the La Liga authorities to promote their competition.
Messi was surprisingly overlooked in this year's category of best American player, as was former Real Madrid and now Manchester United winger Angel Di Maria, with Sevilla's Carlos Bacca claiming the prize.