Mike Dean claims he performed secret video games for fun whereas refereeing matches | Football

The former Premier League referee Mike Dean claims he used to participate in secret challenges whereas officiating, together with attempting to remain within the centre circle for so long as potential, as he confessed to “just joking about” throughout matches. The remarks, made by one of the well-known officers within the English recreation, have been met with bemusement by refereeing officers who say there isn’t any proof of any such behaviour having ever taken place.

Dean was a member of the choose group of referees for greater than 20 years earlier than he retired in 2022 and a quick spell as a video assistant referee adopted. In an interview on Jamie Vardy’s podcast this week, Dean shared anecdotes from his time as a top-flight official within the pre-VAR period. “We used to say, ‘We’ll kick off now. Right, see how long we can go without blowing a whistle,’” he mentioned. “I’ve done that a few times in the Premier League, before VAR obviously – [I] went 20, 25 minutes without blowing a whistle.

“I used to do another thing. I used to stand in the centre circle – see how long I could stay in the centre circle before I had to leave. That was just me joking about. I got about 15 minutes once.”

Officials inside the refereeing organisation, Pro Ref, are understood to be puzzled by the claims, with the suggestion {that a} referee might keep within the centre circle for quarter-hour with out somebody noticing, for instance, seen as extremely inconceivable.

This shouldn’t be the primary time that Dean has courted controversy in a post-retirement interview. Dean was stood down from his function as a VAR in 2023 after failing to intervene over an error in a match between Tottenham and Chelsea, refereed by Anthony Taylor. Describing Taylor as a “mate”, Dean advised Simon Jordan’s podcast that he had chosen to not ask Taylor to evaluation his choice on a VAR monitor as a result of he didn’t need him to have “any more grief than he already had”.

Dean earned notoriety throughout his time as a referee for his flamboyant mannerisms and obvious eye for the digital camera – as captured within the terrace chant “Mike Dean, it’s all about you”. But he was additionally held to be the most effective officers within the high flight, taking cost of 561 matches – and issuing a document 114 purple playing cards – over the course of his 22-year profession.