February 9 – English Premier League referee Mike Dean has asked not to officiate at any games this weekend after he and his family received online death threats following recent highly controversial red card decisions he handed out.
The messages were received after Dean sent off West Ham’s Tomáš Souček in Saturday’s game against Fulham, a ruling subsequently overturned on appeal as was another red shown to Southampton’s Jan Bednarek at Manchester United.
Both dismissals were publicly lambasted and Dean has decided to take a break after taking charge of the FA Cup fifth-round tie between Leicester and Brighton on Wednesday night.
“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,” said Mike Riley, a former Premier League referee who is general manager of England’s refereeing body.
“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.”
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