Beckham was shown a yellow card after tangling with Sevilla's Uruguayan striker Ernesto Chevanton six minutes before the whistle in Real's crucial 3-2 win over their championship rivals on Sunday.

The booking, his 10th or the 11th of the season depending on how you view his previous misdemenours, should lead to an automatic one match ban being handed down by the committee, which should meet on Tuesday.

If the committee don't find a a way of letting Beckham off the hook, he is expected to miss next week's home match against Espanyol.

However, the fact that Beckham was on the pitch at all on Sunday remains a matter of some controversy.

Last Thursday, the Spanish federation decided to cancel the yellow card that Beckham had picked up during Real's 4-1 win at Athletic Bilbao the previous week and the former England captain was reprieved and able to face Sevilla.

"In European football the rules are serious but in Spain it is a joke," said angry Sevilla coach Juande Ramos before Sunday's match.

"Everyone else has to obey the rules so I don't understand why Real Madrid don't have to do the same. Justice should be fair and for everybody, and there shouldn't be exceptions," added Ramos.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of Beckham's amnesty, his disciplinary record in his last season at Real remains pitiful.

After injuries and falling out with Real coach Fabio Capello in January, Beckham has only played in 19 league games this season, and he has only played a full 90 minutes in six of them.

The statistics tell a sorry story of Beckham's indiscpline.

He has now played 1081 minutes this season so he is barely getting through an entire game without being booked.

Real Madrid's triumph, in a match that Spanish sports daily Marca had called "the game of the year" on it's front page on Sunday, meant that they took over from Sevilla as the nearest rivals to league leaders Barcelona.

Barcelona now have a two point lead over their eternal rivals and 29-time Spanish champions, after beating Real Sociedad 2-0 on Saturday, with Sevilla two points further back in third.

Real have not won a major title since Beckham arrived in the summer of 2003 and La Liga represents his last chance of getting an honour before he leaves the Spanish capital to join Los Angeles Galaxy at the end of June.