| Referees decided to bury the hatchet on the last day of
the season, and we don't mean in somebody's head. With everyone thinking of the
beach, the men in black were in a happy mood, and the number of yellow cards
shown (34) were only around half of the normal figure. OK there were four
sendings off, but you have to put up some sort of show for your money.
Daudén Ibáñez only needed two cards to take the annual
white stick prize in our chart, and he got them out of the way early in the
game between Numancia and Alavés. After that though he relaxed and
joined the fiesta in a match where nobody had anything to play for.
Daudén just beats Bueno Grimal, who has a higher average per match but
has refereed fewer games. There were in fact only a couple of performances
which caught the eye, with Fernández Marín going a bit over the
top at Santander and Pérez Lasa missing a penalty by Ayala on Overmars
and then showing nine yellows, including one to Rivaldo for taking off his
shirt when he scored the winning goal in the last minute. I mean it was hardly
indecent exposure, as he was wearing a perfectly decent T-shirt underneath, not
like Casas from Betis and several more who ended the day in their underpants
after throwing all their kit to the fans. Even in the second division referees
had a quiet day for once, with only Rodado Rodríguez sending off three
in the inconsequential game between Levante and Badajoz and Javega
Jiménez disallowing two goals for Atlético in the second half
when they needed to score seven to gain promotion. After García-Aranda
retired last week, it was the turn of Andradas Asurmendi, and he went through
the whole match without booking anybody, probably dreaming of his retirement
home by the sea. In a world where referees are becoming more histrionic each
year, their calm composure will be sorely missed. The season is not over yet,
as there are four cup semi-finals and a final to come, although the referees
named for those matches are not in contention for our prize, (unless for
example Fernández Marín produces 29 cards, something fairly
difficult even for a Spanish referee). We will publish the final
classifications after the final on 30th June, and then we too will be taking a
short break before it all starts again at the end of August.
(18.06.01) |
