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Personally, I'm not one for conspiracy theories. In my book, Paul is alive, Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and Roswell is just a town in New Mexico - so I don't for one minute imagine that Álvaro Izquierdo spent the night counting €500 bills and packing his bags for a new life in Ecuador. But when everyone in Seville - Bético and Sevillista alike - is saying that last night's refereeing performance was absolutely in line with the usual pro-Madrid bias that Spanish football has grown accustomed to, it's hard to argue that they might not have a point.
Take Betis president Miguel Guillén, normally as conciliatory and mild-mannered as a country vicar. On the radio last night, he fumed: "I'm outraged. This man has shown he's manifestly incapable of refereeing in Primera...We'll be doing everything in our power to make sure he never officiates here again...He should be refereeing in the lower divisions or youth team football."
As I said last night, Pepe Mel was admirably restrained in him press conference - having had to be restrained during the game itself - and declined to say much more than, "I just hope the ref has a television [to watch the game again]. That's all." Not even Atlético coach Diego Simeone was prepared to defend the man in black, saying simply, "I don't want to comment on him."
Some more points, briefly...
l I'm still waiting for full highlights to appear somewhere on the internet, but the two main incidents seem to have happened as follows. First, shortly after half-time, Perquis and Falcao both lunged towards a loose ball in the area. Let's try and be objective and say that, if it had happened at the other end, we'd have been yelling for a penalty. So, fair enough perhaps. But a red card? Falcao didn't even have the ball under control, there were about three other defenders around him and he was going away from goal. Apart from that, Mr Referee, you were dead right.
And what about the Joel Campbell travesty? Having seen it again on TV, what happened was that a swinging Nacho cross reached the Costa Rican, who chested the ball down - or would have done if the Atleti defender's arm hadn't intervened, in turn knocking the ball against the arm of Campbell, who was already in the process of appealing for a penalty. To be honest, there are too many accidental handballs given as fouls these days, so I would have complained if the penalty hadn't been given, but to then blow up - and book - the Betis player was just asking for trouble.
l All the frustration turned the atmosphere pretty sour by the end, with skirmishes between fans and police, and plastic water bottles raining down from the top tiers even after the match was finished. Miguel Guillén was reluctant to blame the Betis fans too much, but there's no doubt that the bottle throwing is pretty indefensible. The only people really in the firing line are fans in the front rows, young ball boys and poorly paid security staff, so it's not much of a protest, really.
For an idea of how it felt to be there last night, you can't do any better than check out this chronicle of the game from the Bético brothers who have a video blog that's always worth a look. One thing it reminded me was that the referee was getting greeted with cries of "Fuera! Fuera!" (Off! Off) even in the first half.
l There was some football last night, as well, which did give Casto a chance to prove he's a world-class shot-stopper. One save from Falcao turned the Colombian striker white with disbelief.
On the other hand, Rubén Castro doesn't look himself at all right now. Perhaps the injury he picked up in Bilbao is still bothering him, but he just doesn't seem as quick or as sharp as we've come to expect. Pepe Mel never drops him - and that means never - but it looks like he could do with a break, especially with Málaga coming up as soon as the day after tomorrow. Let's hope for a more level playing field there.
(The cover line in Estadio Deportivo means something like "Stolen" or, in British English, "Knicked" or "Pinched.")
