That's gratitude for you! David Beckham makes a magnanimous gesture, asking Medina Cantalejo not to book an opponent, and all the thanks he gets is two rather excessive yellow cards and off you go to an early bath! Maybe Medina didn't like someone telling him how to do his job - Spanish referees can be sensitive like that sometimes. Becks didn't have to bath alone though, Valencia's Albelda also getting on the wrong side of Medina, although the midfielder was unhappy that the referee didn't share his opinion that Figo had been playacting for the second booking.

Medina's eight yellows were nothing though compared with Megia Dávila's thirteen. in the game between Barcelona and Zaragoza. Unfortunately we shall be seeing less of Megia as he is off now to Qatar to be the guest referee in the local league for the next month, after which he will be replaced by Undiano Mallenco. And Hierro and Guardiola thought they had got away from Spanish referees at last!

Less problems at the weekend though, with only a couple of penalty issues causing problems for the men in black. Megia Dávila was involved in one of those, turning down an appeal by Valencia's Oliveira, whereas Tristante Oliva gave a much less obvious one to Celta's Vagner. Villarreal's Ballesteros felt he was hard done by when Daudén Ibáñez booked him for diving in the final minutes with his team a goal down against Real Madrid, especially when he pulled out the red card as well. The referee corrected himself immediately though when he realised the defender had not been booked earlier in the game.

Mixed fortunes for the Catalan clubs, with Barcelona feeling lucky that Mejuto González didn't see Márquez step on the leg of Sevilla's Daniel Alves in an off-the-ball incident, whereas Espanyol were not happy that Pérez Burrull awarded a dubious penalty against them, sent off Vignal and left them without three other players for accumulation of yellow cards. At least though he did award them their first penalty of the season, also questionable. (27.01.04)