Premier League referee Mike Dean asked not to officiate this weekend after receiving death threats, Sky Sports confirmed.
Mike Dean asks not to referee the Premier League match this weekend
What happened?
Dean was involved in two controversial incidents last week at the top flight, prompting him and his family to receive death threats.
The first came during the week Southampton was beaten 9-0 by Manchester United at Old Trafford. Saints defender Jan Bednarek was found to have fouled Anthony Martial in the area and received a direct red card.
Dean then gave another red card over 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 of the 52-year-old on the field monitor at Craven Cottage.
However, both decisions were reversed. A brief statement on the Hammers website read: “On Sunday, West Ham United confirmed that they had sent a notification 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 suspension of the midfielder has been annulled and lifted with immediate effect.”
Although Dean is 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 of the 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.
“No one should be the victim of abominable messages like this. Online abuse is unacceptable in any area of life and more needs to be done to address the problem.
Dean himself has yet to comment.
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