The next to last round of games of the season produced some villainous performances, both on and off the field. The weekend was overshadowed though by serious crowd trouble, with pitch invasions and fighting between supporters at Villarreal, Bilbao, Las Palmas, Betis and Valladolid in the first division and Tarragona and Xerez in the second. The Spanish Football Federation are currently in talks with the government about how to put an end this disturbing trend. The worst incidents came at the end of the game between Villarreal and Zaragoza, when the few remaining Zaragoza fans ran on to the pitch and attacked the players after their team was relegated. Some of the players lost their nerves and fought back, and there were ugly scenes as fists flew in all directions. Although the referee had already left the field and did not see any of this, the disciplinary committee will ask for video evidence and heavy bans could be imposed for those involved. There is now concern about what will happen next week when Marcos Alonso's side play their last game of the season at home to Barcelona. One of the players most involved in the fighting, Paraguay's Toro Acuña, will not be there though as he picked up his fifth yellow card of the season and will be banned.

Six players were sent off this weekend, including Espanyol's Alex Fernández and Lopo in their local derby at Barcelona. With Soldevilla also suspended next week after picking up his tenth yellow in the same match, Flores will have trouble putting together a reliable defence for their vital last game against Málaga. Rayo's Quevedo was shown a red card with the game against Alavés only 18 seconds old, which must be something of a record, and Cañas of Betis also got a direct red in the second half of their game against Depor. Bilbao's Rafa Alkorta was playing his last home game for his club, and was probably expecting Jupp Heynckes to substitute him near the end so that the crowd could applaud him off. When this didn't happen quickly enough, the defender took matters into his own hands (we suppose) and picked himself up two yellow cards, leaving the field to a rousing ovation with a quarter of an hour to go. Finally Mallorca's Olaizola got booked for the second time at the end of the game at Real Madrid, presumably allowing him to leave the field slowly and use up more time to save a point.

Other than Acuña and Soldevilla, one match bans are expected for the following: Felipe (Bilbao), Iván Helguera (Real Madrid), Bassedas (Tenerife) and Víctor (Villarreal) all with 5 yellow cards, Larrazábal (Bilbao) and Vagner (Celta) with 10 yellow cards, and our new leader Quique Alvarez with 15. With only one week to go the race for the title is hotting up, although realistically speaking only three villains can catch Alvarez. Unless of course they come across a referee like the Brazilian who a couple of weeks ago gave one player three yellow cards and two reds. He apparently sent off the offender after giving him a second booking, but he sneaked back on without the referee or his assistants noticing and then got another yellow card a few minutes later and subsequently another red. Now that could easily happen here! (06.05.02)