Clos Gómez was the man under fire this weekend after he awarded no less than three second-half penalties to Barcelona against Sporting Gijón, the last of which at least being highly questionable. Vranjes was shown a second yellow card for the incident, leaving the visitors with ten men, and they launched an appeal against the booking which the disciplinary committee upheld today.

Earlier in the match Clos turned down a penalty claim by the Asturians after Piqué blocked a Halilovic shot on the line, which if given would have earned the defender a straight red card (question: where does the shoulder end and the upper arm begin?), and furthermore Luis Suárez was offside when he made it 2-0.

On the other hand though Barça could have had yet another penalty before the three they got after Vranjes blocked a Jordi Alba shot with his elbow, and as the result in the end was 6-0, the result probably wouldn’t have been much different. It did however enrage some sections of the media, and a Madrid based sports paper which shall remain nameless (Marca) analyzed the record 19 penalties which have been awarded to the Catalans this season, concluding that seven were incorrect. Ah well, it all adds to the fun! (27.04.16)

Name Games played Yellow cards Red cards Total
Iglesias Villanueva 22 147 12 159
Clos Gómez 23 143 9 152
Sánchez Martínez 20 141 9 150
Velasco Carballo 21 137 10 147
González González 23 134 8 142
Del Cerro Grande 21 135 6 141
Fernández Borbolán 21 124 9 133
Jaime Latre 21 122 7 129
Gil Manzano 20 125 3 128
Estrada Fernández 21 114 8 122