A quiet week for Spanish referees, with a provisional total of less than 50 cards in the ten first division matches (46 yellows and 3 reds - a record low). Puentes Leira was the man who raised the most criticisms this week in the match between Las Palmas and Athletic Bilbao. He managed to upset both sides with a series of debateable decisions, starting with waving away a penalty appeal from Las Palmas only seconds before Bilbao scored from the resulting breakaway. He made up for it of sorts after half time sending off Larrainzar for a rather harsh second yellow card, failing to notice that Eloy handled the ball during the play leading up to the Las Palmas equaliser and turning down Etxeberria's penalty appeal as his shot hit Angel on the hand near the end. And this we understand is the man chosen by the computer to referee the big match between Real Madrid and Barcelona in a fortnight's time. Strange that, a computer with a sense of humour.

Puentes was not the only man to make a mistake though, with at least three legitimate goals ruled out for non existent offsides, Salva for Valencia (Llonch Andreu), Xisco for Tenerife (Losantos Omar) and Demetradze for Real Sociedad (Pérez Burrull), and another goal by Palermo disallowed (probably correctly) by Esquinas Torres for a foul on a defender. Fernández Marín turned down Darío Silva's penalty appeal against Barcelona and missed Kluivert's kick at Musampa while he was on the ground. Tough job refereeing though, with post match analysts producing slow motion action replays of incidents which in real life were over in a split second. Still want the job?

Finally the Europe Champions League got a taste of Spanish referees when Daudén Ibáñez sent off two Feyenoord players against Sparta Prague with a quarter of an hour to go, and López Nieto helped Mendieta and company at Lazio with a questionable penalty which Piojo López converted. Rent-a-party never generated so much fun and entertainment as our "hombres en negro". Rent-a-ref? Could be a great new business! (22.10.01)