The Undermining of the Race in Spain

By: Bob | May 22nd, 2007

With Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla and Valencia all within a mere four points of one another at the top of the table, Spain’s La Liga is heading towards a memorable conclusion. The action in the league has been superb all season long, but unfortunately as we head towards the homestretch issues of fairness and integrity have reared their ugly heads.

First there is the ongoing dispute between the league’s referees and the Spanish Football League. The referees are pissed because the league overturned a booking a few weeks ago which allowed David Beckham to avoid a card suspension for Real Madrid in their match against Sevilla.

A star player on a big team receiving special treatment while the big team is playing a crucial game in their hunt for a championship. That could be classified as ‘fishy’.

As a form of protest, the league’s officials have spent the past two rounds refusing to give details for their bookings, which means the league disciplinary committee can’t hand out punishments, which means up to 13 players avoided punishment for last week’s matches, which means the integrity of the competition can be seriously questioned. Is it really fair that players are avoiding suspension at this time of the season when the same players would have been suspended just a few weeks ago for the same infractions? No it is not.

Meanwhile, there are always some who question whether the big clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid dole out bonuses to players on opposing teams to encourage teams to beat their rivals. You can count Getafe defender Javier Paredes among the handful who think this is a splendid idea.

“If they paid you to lose it would be different as it would undermine the competition, but if you get paid more to win then all the better,” Paredes told a news conference.

Paredes was responding to questions about whether he or his team mates had received an offer from Real Madrid to beat Barcelona in their next league match.

“I would have liked to receive something, but Real Madrid isn’t a club that makes incentive payments like this, they are too big and are strong enough to win games on their own.”

Good to know that Real Madrid isn’t a club to do this, but does this mean that other clubs do?

We don’t know the answer to this question nor do we know how the actions of the league and the referees will impact the final few weeks, but it is a shame that in a year when La Liga has been a joy to follow these kinds of issues are even in the air.