It seems that our comments last week at least inspired one referee to take action. Those reading our pages will recall that we complained that ten referees were hogging the limelight, and that nobody else had made it to our chart in several weeks. No sooner said than done. Muñiz Fernández decided that the midweek cup game between Osasuna and Sevilla would go on despite a snow-covered and at times treacherous pitch, and then whipped out the yellow card every time someone fell over. The game went into extra time, and inevitably the card count rose and rose until Torrado got his second booking and had to leave the field. In all he managed no less than fifteen yellows and one red, something of a record, at least this season. Losers Sevilla have lodged an official protest to the federation though as they say the match should never have been allowed to be played in those conditions.

Muñiz was not finished though, and he was appointed by the obviously impressed league computer as the man in charge of "the match of the weekend" between local rivals Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad. The Basque derbies are hard games at the best of times, but with rain falling it was bound to be a duel to the death. The official was not as his best though, and the bad weather must have obscured his vision as time after time he missed key actions which could have changed the outcome of the match. Real's De Pedro should certainly have been sent off for stamping on Javi González, and Muñiz turned down a clear penalty appeal when Aitor Ocio brought down Kovacevic in the area in an action similar to (but more blatant than) the penalty given against Roberto Carlos the week before.

But that was only the start of things, and Ocio held on to Kovacevic's shirt in the penalty area so many times that the striker said afterwards that he had started the game wearing an XL and ended it wearing an XXXL. The poor man was so frustrated that in the end he resorted to throwing punches at the defender, but of course Muñiz didn't see that incident either (although he did finally see Nihat's high tackle on Alkiza, presumably when the weather . In the end a rousing couple of performances worthy of Spain's finest, and the official gets his reward by rocketing into our chart at number four. A tip for the top? . (04.02.03)