Mike Dean admits he didn’t step in on ‘major, stupid’ VAR decision to protect his ‘mate’ Anthony Taylor from ‘grief’ over a 96th-minute equaliser he should have disallowed
- Mike Dean admits hedid not send Anthony Taylor to review a call to protect him
- He also spoke about the mental and physical durability needed to be a referee
- WATCH: ‘It’s All Kicking Off’ – Episode 2 – Mail Sport’s brand new football show
Mike Dean has admitted that he avoided sending Anthony Taylor to review a mistake in a game to prevent his ‘mate’ from getting extra ‘grief’.
The former Premier League referee was the VAR official when Cristian Romero pulled Marc Cucurella’s hair before Harry Kane scored a 96th-minute equaliser as Spurs drew 2-2 at Chelsea in April 2022. Romero went unpunished.
Chelsea had already been upset when Rodrigo Bentancur fouled Kai Havertz that Taylor, though judged it to be a fair challenge.
Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte were booked after a face-to-face altercation and then sent off after the final equaliser for coming to blows as tempers flared.
‘I missed the stupid hair pull at Chelsea versus Tottenham which was pathetic from my point of view,’ Dean told Simon Jordan’s Up Front podcast.
Mike Dean opened up about trying to protect Anthony Taylor from abuse in the Chelsea-Spurs game last year as well as the abuse and fitness tests referees have to go through
Cristian Romero (centre) tugged Marc Cucurella’s hair just moments before Spurs equalised late in stoppage time, but nothing was awarded
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‘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.’
As well as opening up on the error, Dean talked about the emotional impact refereeing had on him and the terror he would feel with the possibility of being hounded for errors.
‘That was a major error. If they don’t score from the corner it is not as big an issue. But I knew full well then I would be stood down the week after. I asked to take a bit of time off because it wasn’t for me.
‘I used to get in the car on a Friday and was dreading Saturday. I was thinking, “I hope nothing happens.” I used to be petrified sitting in the chair.’
Dean was subsequently relieved of his VAR duties for two months and has now stepped away from refereeing.
Elsewhere on the podcast, Dean spoke of the traits required to make it as a referee. He referenced needing a ‘thick skin, some kind of personality, you have to have a bit of authority about you, you’ve got to have a little bit of arrogance about you’.
Mixed in with the character traits, one key element is fitness.
Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte were booked and then sent off their their heated disputes
Kane headed the last-minute equaliser in a raucous game at Stamford Bridge
Anthony Taylor, above, was not sent to review the incident by VAR official Dean as he did not want Taylor to come in for more abuse
Referees are put through rigorous tests to ensure they can keep up with football at the highest level – to keep up with counter-attacks, withstand the demands of games now lasting over 100 minutes, and make hundreds of split-second decisions about high-speed incidents.
After the end of the season, he explained that referees get three weeks off before launching into an eight-week preparation plan for the new campaign.
He said: ‘We have an eight-week plan that Simon, the fitness guy, sends us through, which we have to follow, download it with your heart rate monitors, your GPS units, just to make sure you’re doing the work properly.
‘There’s a criteria to pass the fitness test in July on the running track. We do 75 metres in 15 seconds, then you have to walk 25 metres in 15 seconds, and repeat that 20 times, which is pretty tough, and the older you get, it does get tougher!
‘Then you’ve got sprints as well, which is six 40-metre sprints at 5.9 seconds with a one-minute recovery between each sprint.
All referees do the same fitness test, no matter their age – something Dean questioned.
Dean told Simon Jordan about the rigorous fitness tests that referees have to do – and questioned whether officials of all ages should do the same one
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‘The older you get, it does get tougher.
‘If you’re a really good referee at 52 and you sprint a 6.0 and you run a 15.2 and you fail, is that a right thing to do because you could be the best referee in the world and miss out by .2 of a second?
‘I get there’s criteria. There’s criteria as well with body fat, so [compared to] when I finished [the season] in 2022, for the start of this 2023/24 season, everybody’s body fat had to be 16% or lower, which was tough.
‘When I was refereeing it was probably 17.5-18%, not a big thing made of it, but I think now when you look at refs in UEFA when they’re refereeing European games, it’s very rare you’ll see a referee now who is on the larger side.
‘They’re pretty trim and they do stuff with UEFA. UEFA have the same kind of fitness test levels, especially the guys in the elite group like Anthony [Taylor] and Michael [Oliver], they have to go to Geneva twice a year, go through full fitness things, exactly the same protocol we have: their body fat has to be low – if it isn’t, they don’t get games, simple as that.’
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