Referees and their linesmen would do well to get their eyes tested after this weekend's displays, with three goals disallowed which television pictures showed were quite valid. Rodríguez Santiago ruled out Luque's strike for offside early on in the match at Real Madrid, the linesman's view probably blocked by Raúl Bravo who was standing in front of him at the time playing the striker on! A second goal by Iván Helguera was also ruled out at the other end, although it did appear that a previous foul had been committed by Raúl. Valencia's Aimar also had a goal cancelled at Betis for a non existent offside, and Osasuna's Webó had a last minute strike from an overhead kick disallowed for dangerous play which didn't appear to be so bad. Luque's goal could have changed the result, Aimar's probably wouldn't have, but Webó's would certainly have done so. God works in mysterious ways though, and Osasuna may probably get the three points by default anyway after Racing played for two minutes with four non-EU players on the pitch.

This section could have been written with nine matches still pending though after the performance of Pino Zamorano. As you no doubt all know by now, he was the official who sent off six players plus goalkeeping coach Tommy N'Kono in the match between Espanyol and Barcelona, a record even for Spain (incidentally the previous record was five, all Mallorca players in the game at Espanyol in 1987, a match which by coincidence was the first that your correspondent attended in Spain). True, there were some hard tackles, but a little bit more "mano izquierda" and a little less rule book would have prevented the game from turning into a farce. By the way, technically speaking that wasn't the highest number of sendings off this weekend. Moreno Delgado actually ordering all 15 or so Málaga ball boys out of the ground as they wasted time with their side winning against Mallorca. The team delegate was so incredulous when he was told what the referee wanted that he didn't carry out his orders correctly, and got himself a red card as well for his pains. (15.12.03)