Atlético Madrid's Mono Burgos has got himself into another fine mess. The eccentric keeper apparently played a joke on Racing's Regueiro which backfired badly, calling him to say that he should have a word with his colleagues to slacken off in their match against Celta, as some of his best friends played for the Galician side and they could do with a helping hand. He added that if anybody needed persuading he could help out, as he earns a very good salary at Atlético!

Somehow or other this came to the attention of the Racing management, who (having already had a point docked themselves for fielding too many foreigners) were in no mood for pranks and took the matter seriously, reporting mysteriously to the Federation that "there were grave irregularities surrounding the match with Celta". Burgos immediately owned up and put the matter in the hands of his lawyers, but the Federation have just opened an investigation which could land the part-time rock star in trouble. Some people have no sense of humour.

Back to mundane matters, and there were only two red cards this weekend, Athletic Bilbao's Karanka and Betis's Tais both picking up second yellow cards late in their respective games. Several players will miss the weekend's matches though for accumulation of bookings, including Sevilla's Javi Navarro who picked up his tenth booking of the season, and Van Bronckhorst (Barcelona), Luis Fernández (Betis), Duscher (Deportivo), Miguel Angel (Málaga), Clavero (Murcia), Solari (Real Madrid), Caminero (Valladolid) and David Pirri (Zaragoza), all with five cautions to their names. (06.04.04)