Premier League Referee Receives Death Threats, Requests to Not be Involved in Upcoming Weekend’s Fixtures

Premier League referee Mike Dean asked to not be involved in any Premier League matches this upcoming weekend after he and members of his family received online death threats. The threats have been reported to the police already.

Although Dean will still work the FA Cup match between Everton and Brighton on Wednesday, he will not be involved in any PL matches this weekend.

“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,” Professional Games Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) managing director Mike Riley said of the situation. “Nobody should be a 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.”

The threats came after Dean handed a red card to Tomas Soucek between West Ham and Fulham last Saturday. Soucek and Aleksandar Mitrovic collided during an incident and Dean sent Soucek off after reviewing the video that showed an elbow being thrown.

West Ham were successful, however, in their appeal of the red card.

“I am glad my red card against Fulham has been overturned,” Soucek said on Twitter. “I’ve checked it, I’ve gone over 200 games without a single red card. My entire career. I am looking forward to helping the team in the important games this week! Thanks for your support!”

This was not Dean’s first controversial incident, however. He was also involved in the Southampton-Aston Villa match that saw Jan Bednarek (Southampton) to be sent off.

PGMOL continues to review the recent incidents to ensure both player well-being and referee safety.