| Referees were back on form this week, with 50 yellows and
four sendings off, three of which were with direct reds. Pérez Lasa was
responsible for two of them, leaving Las Palmas at the end of their game
against Real Madrid with eight men after they also lost a player through
injury. As if it wasn't hard enough beating Madrid with eleven!. He is one of
the top three who are starting to open up a gap with a quarter of the season
gone. Last week's leader Daudén Ibáñez was handed a gift
in the last minute when Téllez saw red (in more ways than one) to keep
up his record of one sending off a game. But even these two were no match for
this week's award winner, Not-So-Bueno Grimal. He somehow managed to produce
fourteen yellow cards in the Barcelona Villarreal match, including nine to the
visitors, without repeating himself once, something of a record. He also
awarded a penalty to Barcelona for a possible hands from Arruabarrena on the
line, but reversed his decision after consulting his linesman, restarting the
game with a bounce-up in the penalty area. Understandably the crowd were a
little upset, and the referee got hit by a coin thrown from the depths of the
stadium a bit later on. He has now shown no less than 40 yellow cards and one
red in four games. Contrast that with Euro 2000 referee García-Aranda,
who has shown only 10 yellows and one red (the blatant hand ball by Iván
Ania) in the same number of games. (13.11.00) |
