Getafe were pretty miffed with Gil Manzano this weekend, the referee’s decisions in their match at Betis at least contributing in part to them being relegated to the second division. What upset them most though was the penalty he awarded to the Andalusians with a quarter of an hour to go which basically condemned them to the drop, the foul by Damián Suárez on Musonda clearly taking place outside of the area before the on-loan Chelsea winger staggered on in to the box. Gil also showed eight yellow cards to Getafe players plus a straight red for Emi Buendía for what was in fact a very late tackle, and only a restraining hand from coach Juan Eduardo Esnáider prevented the young player from making matters a lot worse with his protests.

That’s it though, and unless Spanish cup final referee Del Cerro Grande shows 20 cards or more next Sunday (!), Clos Gómez is our award winner this season. Before we go though, we should say goodbye to another one of our beloved men-in-black, Velasco Carballo being forced to hang up his whistle having reached the statutory retirement age of 45. We would all have liked to see him carry on a bit longer, but rules are rules! In any case he isn’t finished just yet, as he will be Spain’s representative in the upcoming European championship. Don’t take it badly, but we hope he doesn’t referee the final, as that would mean that Spain would have been knocked out earlier! See you all in August! (17.05.16)

PS Del Cerro Grande gave it his best shot in the cup final, showing no less than twelve yellow cards and four straight reds! That took him up to second in our rankings, although he still fell short of our winner Clos Gómez.

Name Games played Yellow cards Red cards Total
Clos Gómez 25 156 10 166
Del Cerro Grande 24 152 11 163
Iglesias Villanueva 22 147 12 159
Sánchez Martínez 21 143 9 152
Velasco Carballo 22 141 10 151
Fernández Borbolán 23 138 11 149
González González 25 141 8 149
Gil Manzano 22 143 4 147
Estrada Fernández 23 124 10 134
Jaime Latre 22 125 8 133