There’s a famous line in The Big Short when a baffled Mark Baum, after hearing some finance bros casually admit to issuing fraudulent, high-risk loans to unqualified borrowers, asks his colleagues: “I don’t get it. Why are they confessing?”
“They’re not confessing. They’re bragging,” comes the response.
Naturally, people thought of this when ex-Premier League referee Mike Dean made his latest attempt to shove himself into the spotlight. On Jamie Vardy’s Having a Party podcast, he “admitted” to playing secret mini-games while officiating top-flight matches.
He claimed: “We used to say, ‘Right, we’ll kick off now, right? See how long we can go without blowing a whistle.’ Done that a few times in the Premier [League], before VAR obviously. Went 20-25 minutes without blowing a whistle a few times. Let it go, let it go, let it go.” He also said he would try and stay within the confines of the centre circle for as long as possible, once reaching the 15-minute mark on that particular side-quest.
It was for “a laugh”, he said. Harmless fun, apparently. Except of course it’s not; if these claims were true, it would indicate a very real breach of integrity at the top level and add fuel to the already-existing fire of fan distrust of referees and their practices. The virality of the clip in question means the latter has already happened.
There are accusations of match-fixing floating around on social media from those who are taking Dean’s word as fact. But let’s just remember who’s speaking for a second.
Refereeing body Pro Ref, formerly known as PGMOL, is understood to be baffled by Dean’s comments. Sources inside the organisation have no idea in which games he would have performed these claims, other than his suggestion that they took place in a pre-VAR era (so before 2019), which would have been under previous leadership. Furthermore, they have no evidence that his mystifying side-quests ever happened. His infamous and self-admitted “arrogance” means there’s a feeling he over-embellished at the very least, or even made it up completely.
Pro Ref also seems powerless to the situation given that Dean has not been a referee since retiring in 2023; he hasn’t been under the body’s employment for three years.
Any official complaint would go through the FA.
Fact or fiction, Dean’s insatiable appetite for attention has hurt his colleagues. He was notorious for his unique manner of refereeing football matches, forging a legacy that will be preserved by the compilation that does the rounds every year of him being wacky. Remember when he hid the match ball from Sergio Aguero? (Insert laughing emoji…)
But as one of his more esteemed colleagues – and his former PGMOL boss – would attest to, the best referees don’t draw attention to themselves. “As a referee, you want to go unnoticed, that things go smoothly,” said Howard Webb. That was ironically said in disappointment after the 2010 World Cup final, when he issued 14 yellow cards and a red to John Heitinga – not Nigel de Jong, somehow.
The point still stands. You don’t want a highlight reel; that’s not your job.
Dean has been the subject of actual refereeing controversies before, other than just being a character. He failed to intervene while on VAR duty when Tottenham’s Cristian Romero pulled the hair of Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella late in their 2-2 draw in August 2022 because he didn’t want to give his “mate” Anthony Taylor any grief.
He candidly admitted this was “pathetic” on his part. It still didn’t help the perception that referees’ loyalty to one another can impact games and even lead to a prevention of justice.
Upon his own retirement this summer, Taylor opted against taking a role in the media, telling BBC Sport in an interview that he felt his attributes were better suited elsewhere. Part of this was down to his dismay at referees-turned-pundits criticising their former colleagues, which adds to scrutiny that is already “off the scale”. He instead became the director of elite refereeing with the Turkish Football Federation, looking to help the Turkish game through its ever-developing referee betting scandal.
Dean, meanwhile, leads the way for referees in broadcasting. His role on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday explicitly scrutinises officials. There is a demand for this job and he is far from the only one to do it, so this is by no means a criticism of him.
But the spotlight can be addictive. To stay in it, you need to stand out – he now has to do this with his words rather than his on-pitch mannerisms. On this occasion, a funny anecdote has proved a damaging admission, true or not, both for him and all referees.
Times like this take me back to that famous Garth Crooks clip on BBC One’s Final Score, the rival to the show Dean is now a regular on, from 11 years ago.
“I think Mike Dean is a good referee, but he’s got one fault: he wants to be the star too often. It’s really getting on my nerves because he’s spoiling great games. It’s not about you, Mike, it’s about the games – people come here and pay good money to see football, not for you to get over-officious like a petulant school teacher.”
It’s aged pretty well.
