Mike Dean claims it is “an absolute farce” to suggest he didn’t send Anthony Taylor to the pitchside monitor because he was his “mate”. The former referee received a live TV grilling on Soccer Saturday following his revelations about a Premier League game last season.
Dean said: “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.”
Explaining why he didn’t send Taylor to the monitor, Dean said: “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.”
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