Former Premier League referee Mike Dean has revealed he used to play secret “games” while refereeing top-flight matches, including one where he tried to avoid giving a foul for as long as possible.
Speaking on the Jamie Vardy’s Having a Party podcast, Dean admitted to playing two different “games,” and suggested he had also discussed playing them with other officials.
“There used to be games we used to have, as a laugh we used to say ‘Right, we’ll kick off now, right. See how long we can go without blowing a whistle,'” he said.
“I’ve done that a few times in the Premier League, before VAR, obviously. Went 20-25 minutes without blowing a whistle — ‘Let it go, let it go, let it go.'”
Dean also revealed he played a second game where he would challenge himself to stay inside the centre circle for as long as possible.
“I used to do another thing in the Premier League,” he said. “I used to stand in the centre circle and see how long I could stay in the centre circle before I had to leave. That was just me joking about.
“The lads used to be on the line saying ‘You can’t.’ I said ‘I’ll try it.’
“You’d just, like, kind of run round, kind of go … But don’t come out of it [the centre circle]. I got about 15 minutes once, in one game, without leaving the centre circle.”
ESPN has reached out to the PGMOL and the Premier League for comment.
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This is not the first time that Dean, who refereed over 500 Premier League matches over a top-flight career which lasted more than two decades, has been embroiled in controversy.
In 2023, following a game a year before between Chelsea and Tottenham in which he was the VAR, Dean admitted to not alerting referee Anthony Taylor to a missed call because he wanted to spare him “more grief.”
Dean, who served solely as a VAR during the 2022-23 season having retired from refereeing in 2022, stepped back from officiating altogether in 2023.
