David Fernández Borbalán has again the "honour"..

David Fernández Borbalán issued three red cards in his 1st clásico

Everyone knows the background behind probably the most traditional and best match on this planet. When FC Barcelona and Real M
adrid meet, it is not only football. It can be furthermore seen as the eruption and showplace of political issues concerning "La dictadura de Franco", Catalonia's pursuit of "independencia" and so on.

An overview of "los clásicos" since the millennium:

Year	Comp.	Home	Res	Away	Referee
2000	La Liga	FCB	2-0	RMA	Alfonso Pérez Burrull	2-5	0	0
2001	La Liga	RMA	2-2	FCB	José Losantos Omar	3-2	0	0
2001	La Liga	RMA	2-0	FCB	Evaristo Puentes Leira	2-3	0	0
2002	La Liga	FCB	1-1	RMA	Alfonso Pérez Burrull	3-2	0	0
2002	UCL ½	FCB	0-2	RMA	Anders Frisk (SWE)	3-3	0	0
2002	UCL ½	RMA	1-1	FCB	Pierluigi Collina (ITA)	2-1	0	0
2002	La Liga	FCB	0-0	RMA	Luis Medina Cantalejo	3-4	0	0
2003	La Liga	RMA	1-1	FCB	César Muñiz Fernández	2-7	1-0	0
2003	La Liga	FCB	1-2	RMA	Fernando Carmona Méndez	5-2	0	0
2004	La Liga	RMA	1-2	FCB	Alfonso Pérez Burrull	3-0	1-0	0
2004	La Liga	FCB	3-0	RMA	Alberto Undiano Mallenco	0-2	0	0
2005	La Liga	RMA	4-2	FCB	Rafael Ramírez Domínguez	2-3	0	0
2005	La Liga	RMA	0-3	FCB	Eduardo Iturralde González	3-2	0	0
2006	La Liga	FCB	1-1	RMA	Luis Medina Cantalejo	1-6	0	0-1
2006	La Liga	RMA	2-0	FCB	Alfonso Pérez Burrull	3-2	0	0
2007	La Liga	FCB	3-3	RMA	Alberto Undiano Mallenco	3-5	1-0	0
2007	La Liga	FCB	0-1	RMA	Manuel Mejuto González	2-2	0	0
2008	La Liga	RMA	4-1	FCB	Alfonso Pérez Burrull	3-4	0-1	0
2008	La Liga	FCB	2-0	RMA	Luis Medina Cantalejo	2-5	0	0
2009	La Liga	RMA	2-6	FCB	Alberto Undiano Mallenco	4-2	0	0
2009	La Liga	FCB	1-0	RMA	Alberto Undiano Mallenco	0-4	1-1	0
2010	La Liga	RMA	0-2	FCB	Manuel Mejuto González	4-4	0	0
2010	La Liga	FCB	5-0	RMA	Eduardo Iturralde González	5-8	0	0-1
2011	La Liga	RMA	1-1	FCB	César Muñiz Fernández	2-5	0	1-0
2011	UCL ½	RMA	0-2	FCB	Wolfgang Stark (GER)	3-2	0	1-1
2011	UCL ½	FCB	1-1	RMA	Frank de Bleeckere (BEL)	1-5	0	0
2011	CdR Fin	FCB	0-1 et	RMA	Alberto Undiano Mallenco	3-3	0-1	0
2011	SC Fin	RMA	2-2	FCB	Fernando Teixeira Vitienes	3-2	0	0
2011	SC Fin	FCB	3-2	RMA	David Fernández Borbalán	3-5	0	1-2

In 2011, these two teams met six times, six pieces of exciting football, but also fights, red cards and helpless refereeing. It did not matter whether Spanish referees were in charge of this match or European top referees like Wolfgang Stark and Frank de Bleeckere. They all had their problems in a match which normally controls itself. "El clásico" is of course always fascinating but after the first semifinal, I had no lust anymore to watch the remaining matches. The reason behind that was a helpless Real Madrid side which did not know how to beat Barca by playing football. The "special one", José Mourinho, was the best example for that. Prickling an opponent's eye was more important than showing his team that Barca can be beaten.

The gap between both teams heavily decreased in this season; Real seem to be the favourites to win today's match which will be handled by David Fernández Borbalán who had many problems in his first clásico in the last season's Supercopa Final. 

However, one has to state that a very good perfomance without mistakes is nearly impossible in a match where the involved teams mostly favour boxing instead of playing football.

The man from Almería in the Comunidad Autónoma of Andalusia has been ranked as no.2 in Spain by rfef closely behind Carlos Velasco Carballo. After two nominations for CL matches, two clásicos and this ranking, a promotion is only a question of time on UEFA level as well.

10/12/2011, 22:00, Santiago Bernabeu

Real Madrid CF - FC Barcelona

Árbitro: David Fernández Borbalán (CA de Andalucía)

Asistentes: Raúl Cabañero Martínez (CA de Murcia), Jorge Canelo Prieto (CA de Andalucía)

4to Árbitro: Juan Manuel López Amaya (CA de Andalucía)

¡Mucha suerte!