The soap opera ended after the tremendous mess that arose over the weekend with the place that gave the right to compete in the playoff for promotion from the First RFEF to the Second Division.
Finally, it will be Real Madrid Castilla that will play the tie and not Pontevedra, the other team ‘affected’ and which has been the one that has made the final resolution official.
The 2-2 draw against Avilés in Pasarón seemed enough to secure fifth place for the Galicians, which caused the players and fans to celebrate on the pitch. However, the RFEF made it official that Real Madrid Castilla had qualified, with the same points. A major quilombo caused due to two different criteria for applying the regulations.
The two criteria that caused the chaos
Group I ends with a triple tie at 58 points between Real Madrid Castilla, Pontevedra and Barakaldo for fifth place, the last one that gives access to the promotion playoff, but the chaos spread at the end of the games. Because? Because the criteria contained in the Competition Rules gave the place to Pontevedra, but with article 29 of the RFEF Competition Regulations, which is a higher-ranking rule, the place belongs to Castilla. The mess had to be resolved by the Single Competition Judge, who agreed with the white reserve team.
Applying this General Regulation of the RFEF, which has a higher rank, Barakaldo would be the first eliminated of the three, since it is the one with the fewest points in direct confrontations (3)… and the final tiebreaker would be between Castilla and Pontevedra, which in that ‘liguilla’ between the three had seven points. And here the commotion begins.
“The rules established in the previous paragraph will be applied in order and with an exclusive nature, in such a way that, if one of them resolves the tie of any of the clubs involved, it will be excluded, applying to the others the corresponding ones, depending on whether their number is two or more,” says the RFEF Competition Regulations. That is to say, the tiebreaker between Castilla and Pontevedra would be resolved with direct duels between them, and since the whites tied in Pasarón and won in the Di Stéfano, they would be the qualifiers.
But, on the other hand, there are the Competition Rules, where Barakaldo would not be excluded from that triple tie. The tie-breaking criterion is the following, according to the rule: “Greatest difference in goals for and against between the matches played between the teams involved in the tie.” With this rule, the winner would be Pontevedra, which has a balance of +2, while Castilla has a balance of +1.
The precedent set by the resolution
There is a very similar precedent in Spanish football… 19 years ago in Second Division B. There was a 65-point tie between Real Unión, Palencia CF and Sestao River in the fight to enter the promotion playoff. In this case, yes, there were two places at stake.
That classification was not decided by the overall goal difference, but by the ‘liguilla’ created solely with the matches between the three tied teams. That is to say, the same criteria that right now gives Castilla its playoff place were applied.
Palencia finished first in that ‘liguilla’, then Sestao… and Real Unión, who as in the case of Pontevedra now had a better goal difference, was left out. The rule of the RFEF Competition Regulations was applied above the Competition Rules.