Former top ref Keith Hackett has slammed Mike Dean declaring the sending off of Tomas Soucek was a seriously bad decision.
And he – like CandH – believes the time has come for him and his partner in football crime Lee Mason to call it a day.
‘I think the time is long overdue for Mike Dean and Lee Mason to step down as referees following their hapless double act when adjudicating on West Ham United’s Tomas Soucek,’ Hackett wrote in the Telegraph.
‘I would love to know the conversation that took place between the two before Soucek was shown a red card. It was clear that the contact between Soucek’s elbow and Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic was accidental.
‘Soucek had not used excessive force and/or endangered the safety of an opponent to meet the requirement for a sending off.
‘The way Mitrovic dropped to the ground as though he had been shot probably deceived Mason at Stockley Park and led him to ask Dean to watch a replay on the pitchside monitor.’
Hackett added: ‘In the case of the Soucek incident, I was shocked when two experienced referees could make such a bad decision. It is the sort of decision that makes life hard for the 27,000 referees officiating in local parks (when there is no lockdown).’
ClaretandHugh says: “This now draws a line under the scandalous decision to hand out a red card to a man who was trying to get his arm out of the way of a bloke who was giving him terrible grief. The reality is that it is Mitrovic who should have been red-carded – or at the very least yellowed – for his disgraceful behaviour which almost made Jack Grealish look like a novice at the art of deception. To be as alliterative as possible I will repeat what I said earlier: “Dean’s day is done. The entire football community including referees has come out against the man who has twice lost the plot on red cards at St Mary’s and now Craven Cottage. Both he and Lee mason should now become very firmly a part of the games past. And that’s not a reaction to what happened yesterday but to events involving the bloke over a number of years.
Souchek had his fist clenched and according to Lee mason that was a sign that force had been used because you have to clench your fist to get power into an elbow strike. So Mike dean was a little bit thrown under the bus by mason. However dean is the type of ref who would look for grounds to send a player off rather than look for grounds to give the player the benefit of doubt. Having said all that Dean probably doesn’t deserve abuse in social media and people calling for him to be sacked from his job. After all He is a human and makes mistakes just like us all. If we get to a point where referees are being hounded out if their jobs in a witch hunt, who will want to be a referee in future? It will stop some decent people from going into refereeing in the first place and as a result the standard of referees will only suffer.
I agree but I am very sorry if Dean has received any threats of any kind. For me, there could be 2 positive outcomes from this sorry mess:
1. Dean and Mason ‘retire’ immediately
2. We never again hear anyone suggesting Mitrovic could do a job up front for us if/when Fulham go down.
And if someone knows something about unfair red cards, it’s Keith Hackett…
ROTFL
Well image this scenario, Fulham score and win the game, westham are at a disadvantage of being a player down, does that mean due to error in judgement from Dean, the game has to be replayed as the outcome was flawed?
Although making death threats is excessive and unnecessary, the fact remains these were substandard performances by so called experienced referees and how many times has Dean been embroiled in this type of situation before?
That’s a bit rich!! Pots and kettles and all that!! Spoiled a good day out that man.
Hackett and Dean; two peas from the same pod!
yep he would know a bad decision 🙂
Death threats are a police matter.
Had Soucek been on the pitch for the free kick we might have scored. It is not merely the advantage shown to Fulham for the final minutes.
The Southampton v ManU match was a farce. The first red card should have resulted in a 10 game suspension. Deliberate attempt to injure. The second was due to a dive by Martial, who like Mitrovic, feels it is fair game. The managers are responsible too.
Mike Dean is a disaster who needs, at very least, a break and retraining.