Mike Dean officiated 553 Premier League matches over 22 years. And now, retired, he has revealed the part no one knew.
On Jamie Vardy’s podcast, Dean confessed that he and his assistants played a game to see how long they could go without blowing for a foul: in some matches, they made it to 20 and 25 minutes.
He also admitted that he challenged himself to stand still in the center circle, once for as long as 15 minutes straight, just to see how far he could take it.
All of this happened before VAR, when no one could review it. Former footballer Gabriel Agbonlahor was one of the first to come out and harshly criticize him, and social media was quick to join in.
How many results changed because of that little game?