Mike Dean has incredibly revealed he missed a blatant VAR error because he was keen to protect his friend Anthony Taylor. The remarkable admission was made in reference to last season’s 2-2 draw between Chelsea and Tottenham at Stamford Bridge when Cristian Romero somehow escaped punishment for pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair.
The incident occurred just seconds before Harry Kane struck a 96th-minute equaliser as tensions boiled over at Stamford Bridge.
The match was best remembered for the iconic, fiery full-time handshake between Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte in west London.
But the stunning comments have already caught the attention of furious Chelsea fans, who are outraged that external factors entered Dean’s thinking when sat in the VAR chair.
Dean told Up Front with Simon Jordan: “I missed the stupid hair pull at Chelsea versus Tottenham which was pathetic from my point of view.
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“It’s one of them where if I had my time again, what would I do? I’d send Anthony [Taylor] to the screen. I think I knew if I did send him to the screen… he’s cautioned both managers, he’s had a hell of a game, it’s been such a tough game end to end.
“I said to Anthony afterwards: ‘I just didn’t want to send you to the screen after what has gone on in the game’. I didn’t want to send him up because he is a mate as well as a referee and I think I didn’t want to send him up because I didn’t want any more grief than he already had.
“Anthony, he is big and bald and ugly enough to know if he is going to the screen he is going to the screen for a reason. If someone pulls their hair now it’s dead easy. It’s just a brainwave by me, a really bad call by me, and it kind of affected me as VAR going forward.”
This summer, Dean decided to step down from his position as video assistant referee.
It ended his 28-year stint as an official that stems right back to his early days in the middle in the Football League.
Former Chelsea boss Tuchel had said following the incident: “I’m genuinely surprised Cucurella’s not bald, the way Romero ripped his hair.”
He also told Sky Sports: “Since when can we pull hair in a football match? They checked and nothing happened — absolutely ridiculous.”
The incident was widely viewed at the time as a high-profile VAR error that many struggled to digest.
Dean claims the blunder was one of the reasons he decided to step down at the end of last season.
He added: “Probably I missed a few games because you get taken out of the limelight.
“That was a major error. If they don’t score from the corner it is not as big an issue. But I knew full well then I would be stood down the week after. I asked to take a bit of time off because it wasn’t for me.
“I used to get in the car on a Friday and was dreading Saturday. I was thinking, ‘I hope nothing happens’. I used to be petrified sitting in the chair.”