On 30 January 1975, one of the most peculiar officiating moments in Spanish football took place. Carabanchel hosted Mallorca in the Copa del Rey - called the Copa del Generalisimo at the time - and the home side won this second leg 3-1 to level the tie at 3-3.There were no away goals at the time, so the match went to extra time and all the way to penalties. In the end, 30 kicks from the penalty mark were taken, but this wasn't what should have happened.
After each team had five penalties each, they were still tied at 4-4, and at this point it should have gone to sudden death penalties. With the 14th kick of the shootout, Carabanchel missed after Mallorca had scored their kick, so the islanders should have been declared the winners and put into the next round. However, the referee Carlos Rabadan had misunderstood the rules and thought that a full set of five penalties each was required. He believed that a team only won the shootout when they'd won a whole set of five. So, he played on until both teams had taken 10 each in total, at which point they were once again level. So, Rabadan then called for another set of five penalties each, taking the total to 15 each and 30 altogether. At this point, there was finally a winner and it was Carabanchel, who should have been eliminated 16 penalties earlier. The refereeing committee later rectified the mistake and put Mallorca into the next round. Rabadan, meanwhile, received a phone call from the head of the referees. "But, what did you do?" he was asked. He held his hands up and admitted he'd made a mistake with the rulebook. To be fair to the official, these rules were fairly new and this was, according to Marca's match report, the only mistake he'd made that day after otherwise overseeing a well-officiated match. Years later, Rabadan reflected on that incident. "How could I not remember it?" he said. "That year I was set to go up from being a second division referee to being a first division referee, but after that I was demoted to the third tier." In addition, Rabadan was suspended for 18 matches. As for the players, some had questioned what was going on, like Mallorca winger Macario."We started to complain, but the truth is that players didn't complain as much back then," he recalled. "So we continued taking penalties." In the end, there were 16 more penalties than there should have been and an incorrect winner. This was the shootout that Carabanchel 'won', but that Mallorca had already won a long time before.
Source: Marca
