| Pérez Burrull put in a sterling performance in the
cup midweek, showing no less than twelve yellow cards and a red in the match
between Rayo Vallecano and Atlético Madrid. Someone had obviously upset
him, and maybe the coin he uses to toss up had been stolen by one of the
players during a 20 minute power cut which happened at the most inopportune
moment as the coin was in the air to choose ends. Whatever the case his display
shoots him into ninth place in our chart, one ahead of our man of the week,
López Nieto.It is not often that a referee is criticised for not being
hard enough after producing eleven yellow cards and two reds, but anyone
watching the televised game between Valencia and Barcelona will understand what
we mean. López Nieto did not see an incident in which Ayala stepped all
over Simao which should have warranted not only a yellow card but a six month
prison sentence. He also missed a couple of possible penalties for Barça
and awarded an inexistent offside against Angulo when he was in a clear scoring
position. It was however a bad tempered match and a difficult one to referee,
to be fair. 'Never-at-home' Bueno Grimal has apparently never sent off a player
from the home side, difficult to believe in Spain. He was criticised by both
sides in Sunday's game, Valladolid complaining that the one minute time added
on at the end of the first half was more than past when Roberto Carlos scored
from his free kick, and Real Madrid claiming that Fernando dived for the
penalty (which the player admitted later). Rayo Vallecano for their part
claimed that Daudén Ibáñez had overruled a perfectly good
goal for offside and then turned a blind eye to a penalty on Michel. But then
it was club president Teresa Rivero who made the claim, and she has a very
blind eye herself. Medina Cantalejo sent off Bilbao's Oskar Vales on
instructions from his linesman for striking Racing's Estévez, even
though the player himself said he barely touched him. Medina moves to the top
of our table after showing eight yellows and a red in that match, level on
cards and games with Turienzo Alvarez, but ahead thanks to the eight reds he
has produced to date, the highest total in the league. Finally congratulations
to second division referee Periñiguez Pérez for getting it right
in the cup penalty shoot out between Gaudix and Granada (we think). He awarded
a goal after the first kick was turned by the keeper on to the crossbar, the
ball falling back in play but then spinning in to the goal without anyone
touching it. Apparently this was the right decision for a penalty shoot out,
but would have been wrong during the 90 minutes. In a panel of six referees
later in the week, three said goal, three said no goal. Experts at the sports
papers finally agreed it was valid. Anyone any idea? (22.01.01) |
