Premier League referee Mike Dean has asked not to officiate this weekend after receiving death threats, Sky Sports have confirmed.
Mike Dean Asks Not to Referee Premier League Game This Weekend
What Happened?
Dean was involved in two controversial incidents last week in the top-flight, leading to him and his family receiving death threats.
The first came during the week when Southampton were defeated 9-0 by Manchester United at Old Trafford. Saints defender Jan Bednarek was deemed to have fouled Anthony Martial in the box and was given a straight red card.
Dean then gave another red card at the weekend, this time to West Ham United’s Tomas Soucek. The Czech Republic international was deemed to have elbowed Aleksander Mitrovic after a review by the 52-year-old at the on-field monitor at Craven Cottage.
However, both decisions were overturned. A short statement on the Hammers website said: “On Sunday, West Ham United confirmed that they had submitted notice to The Football Association to appeal the red card.
“The appeal against Souček’s red card was reviewed by an independent regulatory commission this morning at the Football Association and, following this process, the midfielder’s suspension has been rescinded and lifted with immediate effect.”
Despite Dean being scheduled to referee the FA Cup tie between Leicester City and Brighton & Hove Albion, he will not referee in the top-flight this weekend.
All alleged incidents have also been reported to the police, according to Sky Sports.
PGMOL chief, Mike Riley, said: “Threats and abuse of this nature are totally unacceptable and we fully support Mike’s decision to report these messages his family received to the police.
“Nobody should be victim of abhorrent messages like this. Online abuse is unacceptable in any walk of life and more needs to be done to tackle the problem.”
Dean himself is yet to comment.
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