‘Made matters worse’ – Fans react as Mike Dean says his comments in that interview with Simon Jordan are blown out of proportion.
Mike Dean has broken his silence, and to be honest, he had no choice considering he was due to appear on Soccer Saturday, after he claimed just a few days ago that he made a VAR mistake in order to protect a fellow official, which he calls ‘a mate’.
In his role as a video assistant referee (VAR) for the 2022/23 campaign however, he was dropped for two months following an error in a 2-2 draw between Tottenhamand Chelsea.
Harry Kane netted a last minute equaliser, a goal which was given after his Spurs teammate Romero pulled the hair of Marc Cucurella’s hair just before the leveller.
Dean admitted at the time he made the wrong call and knew he should have told referee Anthony Taylor to check the incident on the VAR monitor.
However, speaking on the Up Front with Simon Jordan podcast, Dean made a shock revelation that he purposefully decided not to send Taylor to the screen to ensure his “mate” was not exposed to any more “grief”. See that for yourself by clicking HERE.
Dean claimed: “I missed the stupid hair pull at Chelsea versus Tottenham which was pathetic from my point of view.
“It’s one of them where if I had my time again, what would I do? I’d send Anthony [Taylor] to the screen. I think I knew if I did send him to the screen … he’s cautioned both managers, he’s had a hell of a game, it’s been such a tough game end to end.
“I said to Anthony afterwards: ‘I just didn’t want to send you to the screen after what has gone on in the game’.
“I didn’t want to send him up because he is a mate as well as a referee and I think I didn’t want to send him up because I didn’t want any more grief than he already had.”
This caused a huge backlash and make PGMOL release a statement while the Mirror having claimed Premier League officials are furious with Dean’s comments.
The full chat with Mike Dean on Sky Sports can be seen below…
Sky Sports News’ Soccer Saturday presenter Simon Thomas along with Clinton Morrison, Darren Bent and Tim Sherwood took to grill him, with Mike Dean saying: “Referring to him as a mate, what you’ve got to look at in context, you may not like some guys in your refereeing group. But when you get a game at the weekend there’s four of you in the middle, a VAR and an Assistant VAR.
“Those six people, those are your mates for the day. You might play in a professional team, there is 11 players and you might not like three or four of them.
“But at 3 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, they’re your mates and you want your mates to do well. So the mate thing has been blown all out of proportion to be fair.
“I want to support the referee as much as I can and that’s what you do as a VAR. Yes I was wrong and I should have sent him to the screen but to say I didn’t send him over because he was a mate is an absolute farce and it’s just been blown all out of proportion to be honest with you, just people trying to make a story.”
Dean added: “Both managers had been cautioned, he had cautioned about eight or nine players and I tried to protect the referee. Not because he’s my mate but because I tried to protect the referee.
“I was wrong, I didn’t have a game after that for three weeks so I paid the price. The buck stops with me and it was a bad mistake by myself.
“The wording I used was probably not the right word. If I said colleague it’s a bit different. Because I used the word friend everyone thought ‘Oh he’s your best mate’. He’s not my best mate, we’re just mates on the day.”
‘Made matters worse’ – Viewers react as Mike Dean claims his comments are blown out of proportion…
@EmenaIo: Seeing this man trying to weasel his way out of something he said to put attention on some random podcast is hilarious. Managers and players can say naff all or get a ban, people like this are ruining the game.
@TomLevins1: He’s just made it 10x worse.
@CFCdxn_: Absolute joke, how are we meant to trust the referees now? They’ve already messed up 2 red cards this season, how do we know that they’re not doing the same as what Mike was doing?
@___Faye: Protecting your mate >>>> Integrity of the game.
@Biggies_MaIIs: Fuck me, he’s managed to make it even worse 😂 He’s now claiming that his job as a VAR is to “protect the referee”. Not “do the right thing in accordance with the rules” but “protect the referee”. Absolute shambles. And you it’s not just him that had/has that mindset.
@jamiewalters23: Mike Dean digging further “When you go out as a team of 6, you want to look after your mate in the middle” How about just ref the game. Years of looking after themselves gone on and now admitted by this arrogant egotistical waste of space.
@WestHamPlace: Farcical. This bloke and the awful English referees like him need to be investigated asap. Openly admitting that he should’ve played by the rules but didn’t is corruption. The game is broken and Mike Dean and his “mates” are part of the problem
@Dave_C90: This prick even being given a platform by Sky is a joke in itself. Self absorbed bald cunt
@niallcity95: Used to sit and laugh in referee meetings for years with Premier League Referees and now MD has gone out and let one story slip on a podcast. You wouldnt believe some of the stories that get told at Referee Association meetings 👀🤣 The reason I dont referee anymore!
@GoonerHillsy: Shame on you @SkySports for letting him even say this. He’s got his nose stuck in the air, like he knows he can’t do wrong. Well he did do wrong. There is absolutely no excuse for what he did, and you need to out him now. If not for the fans sake, then for the games sake.
@SoHappiMuchWow: Wow he just made it worse. Shows how they abuse lack of accountability and have their own inside agenda. This is professional football and one of the biggest league in the world. Sheesh. @FA_PGMOL
@CianByNature: Man this is bizarre. Rather than clarify why he didn’t send Taylor to the screen, he’s trying to clear up why he called him his “mate” like that’s the issue here. Some of these lads are up to their bollox.
@PaddySteacy10: It’s irrelevant wether he’s a mate, brother or anything else. You do your job and you uphold the integrity of the game!
Nobody cares about the mate comment it’s the fact that he decided the result of the game that day.
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