We could talk for hours about the refereeing decisions in the two rounds of cup ties and the league matches this weekend (see also our “Villains” section), but let’s limit it to Barcelona’s complaints about the men in black, which is what is hitting the headlines at the moment. First of all it was against Fernández Borbolán, who turned down penalty appeals by Piqué and Neymar in the cup tie at Athletic Bilbao, the second in particularly for a foul by Etxeita which was fairly blatant. He also failed to spot a karate chop by Aduríz on Umtiti off-the-ball, which should have been a red card for the striker (to be fair though he did send off Raúl García and Iturrape later on). Then at the weekend it was against Iglesias Villanueva, who waved away three penalties for hands, two against Bruno (the worst a diving save to deflect Messi’s shot over the bar) and one at the other end against Mascherano. LFP president Javier Tebas was in the directors’ box for the renaming of what is now the “Ceramica” stadium, and Piqué got himself in to hot water (and a possible fine) by marching up to the edge of the pitch and demanding to know if Tebas had seen the incidents, and then accusing all and sundry of a conspiracy in the post-match conference. Bad decisions, yes, but they did in part at least go both ways, and if Barça had been able to win either match they probably wouldn’t even have been mentioned. Such is football in Spain! (11.01.17)

Name Games played Yellow cards Red cards Total
Estrada Fernández 12 81 6 87
Gil Manzano 12 77 3 80
Martínez Munuera 14 75 4 79
Iglesias Villanueva 12 72 2 74
González González 13 63 4 67
Alvarez Izquierdo 10 59 4 63
Hernández Hernández 11 58 5 63
Del Cerro Grande 10 55 6 61
Clos Gómez 10 57 4 61
Fernández Borbolán 8 51 3 54