You have to be tough if you want to be a referee, and sometimes it must be tempting to favour the home side if only to get out of the ground alive! Many have been labelled as 'casero' in Spain, taken from the phrase 'en casa', i.e. at home (lesson one: mi casa es tu casa). Not so a couple of our hardy boys in the cup midweek, with Daudén Ibáñez causing a near riot when he (correctly) disallowed a goal from Nástic against Real Madrid for offside, and not so Pérez Burrull in the same competition when he sent off Sporting's keeper with only a quarter of an hour gone, awarding a penalty to Villarreal. Luckily for him and his immediate health the replacement keeper saved it.

Another temptation for the men-in-black is that of compensation, under the concept of two wrongs do make a right. That appeared to be the case when Turienzo Alvarez gave Barcelona's Xavi a rather harsh yellow card for protesting what looked like a clear foul, without realising that he had already shown him a yellow earlier. The Villarreal players were only too eager to point out this out, and he was forced to send him off. However when Rochemback trod all over the keeper in the second half, he didn't give him a second booking, and the player stayed on. A similar situation happened at Betis where Iturralde González gave a penalty for what was surely an accidental hands by Fernando Niño at the insistence of linesman Rafa "no me j*das" Guerrero (so called for the reaction of Turienzo a few years ago when the linesman insisted that Zaragoza's Aguado should be sent off for giving away a penalty). A clear penalty appeal in the second half for a foul on Denilson went unheeded.

Our rookie referees continue to lead the white stick table, and their lack of experience showed when both Pino Zamorano and González Vázquez let their games get out of hand. Pino could do nothing as Alavés and Sevilla players jostled each other in the second half, and González just stood by as Vicente and Alex exchanged handbags at three paces in the game between Espanyol and Valencia. Meanwhile Pérez Lasa upset Osasuna manager Miguel Angel Lotina when he awarded a dubious free kick to Las Palmas which led up to their equalising goal, and then turned down a clear penalty appeal for the visitors in the last minute. Now that really was 'casero'. (17.12.01)