Referees were very much in the news this weekend, with three or four controversial decisions deciding the outcome of important games. There were only two fixtures on Saturday but both ended in turmoil. First of all rookie Pérez Lima ruled out what could have been a late winner for Valencia's David Villa at Getafe for what he considered to be a foul on a defender, following which the hosts went down the other end and scored the winning goal themselves (Pérez then went on to send off Villa in injury time - see villains section for more). And then our white stick winner from the last two years Megia Dávila caused an uproar when he awarded a late penalty to Barcelona and sent off Zaragoza's Toledo, allowing Rijkaard's side back in the game. Once again the press (at least outside of Catalonia) made allegations of favoritism for the side "supported by the president of the government", and there were reports that one Real Madrid director won a sweepstake about the time that Zaragoza would have a man sent off after going two up!

Things didn't get better on Sunday, with the Sevilla v Espanyol match following the pattern of the Getafe v Valencia game the day before, Puentes Leira disallowing what everybody agreed was a perfectly good goal by Espanyol's Corominas in the last minute, and Sevilla going up the other end to equalise straight afterwards. There were also major doubts in the last game of the weekend about the penalty which Turienzo Alvarez awarded to Atlético Madrid's Fernando Torres, the Málaga players protesting that César Navas never touched the Spanish international striker. After all the hoo-ha in the press afterwards, Spanish referees defended themselves saying they were the best in the world. Hate to see the worst! (04.10.05)