Only three red cards this weekend, two of which should probably never have been. Both Luis García and Darío Silva were sent off within minutes of each other in the game between Atlético Madrid and Málaga after picking up second bookings for the same reason, kicking the ball away. García had been shown a first yellow card for taking off his shirt and throwing it at the crowd to celebrate his first goal, and got a second for kicking at the ball in disgust after when play was pulled up after the break. If both of those bookings were borderline, more so were those given to Darío Silva, the first for a perfectly reasonable protest after the referee gave a foul that wasn't, and the second when Uruguayan striker didn't hear (or ignored) the referee's whistle for offside and completed his shot at goal. If that was time wasting then Darío is rather stupid, as his side were losing at the time. Both clubs are appealing.

The third red card of the day was more obvious, Athletic Bilbao's Del Horno punching Recreativo's Loren in the stomach, albeit under provocation. The disciplinary committee gave him a four match ban, although Athletic will try and get that figure reduced. They are probably not very hopeful though after their last appeal earlier this week was thrown out. That was re the Gurpegui doping case, and their own doctors tried to demonstrate that the body of the young midfielder produced Nandrolone naturally. This is in fact something that other players have tried to demonstrate in the past, and perhaps UEFA or FIFA should be thinking about a proper study, as they may well have a point. Gurpegui's tests seemed to prove this, and it would be unfair if he had to sit out a year's ban for no reason.

A lot of noise in the press this week about two possible villains who didn't get caught at the weekend, Osasuna's Iván Rosado and John Aloisi. Rosado laid out Barcelona keeper Bonano with a flying elbow in a goalmouth incident, and Aloisi collected the ball whilst the keeper was lying semi-conscious and scored. The goal was disallowed, but only because the Australian striker was offside, and even the Madrid based papers protested. Both players claimed their innocence, saying they were unaware that the keeper was out in the heat of the moment.

Talking of Barcelona, it now looks as if the pending two match ground closure might not go ahead. The club have used their political contacts with the local authorities to get them to withdraw their backing for the ban, and they may just get off with a big fine. If that happens, there will undoubtedly be protests from supporters of other clubs who have had to close their gates for a game or two this season. Finally as always the following players were given one match bans by this week's disciplinary committee after reaching the five yellow card threshold: Naybet (Deportivo), Fernando Sanz and Josemi (Málaga), Marcos (Mallorca), Josetxo (Osasuna), López Rekarte (Real Sociedad) and Casquero (Sevilla). The committee gave out a yellow card too for Villarreal's new signing De Nigris for playing for a few minutes with his shirt on back to front! Doesn't his mother dress him in the mornings? (04.03.03)