The main theme running through this week's reports was penalties. Those that were given and shouldn't have been, those that weren't given that should, those scored and those missed. At times the playing fields of Spain resembled swimming pools, although the only place that the pitch was waterlogged was in Sevilla where the match between Betis and Tenerife was penalty free. Top dives of the week: Michel : 5.9 points (judge, Losantos Omar); Luque 5.8 points (judge, Rodríguez Santiago); Palermo: 0,0 points (judge, Carmona Méndez), etc, etc.

The new boys continue to make their mark, and this week it was the turn of Pérez Pérez. In Spain, where the first surname is the father and the second the mother, a repeated surname normally means that either your father and mother were cousins or your mother never married. Most people's opinions of referees is the latter. .First impressions of this rather reserved, prematurely gray business man is that he is a good chap, and he showed considerable restraint in his first matches in charge. However that earnt him a reputation as a softy, and he probably felt that he had to prove his critics wrong. Result in the no-holds-barred Basque derby between Bilbao and Alavés: 12 yellow cards and one red. Maybe something in between? (05.11.01)