THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE

The poor old referee....what does he have to do to have a good (or even an average) game? All refs are truly in the "frontline" and none more so this week than Mike Dean.

Mike caused a stir yesterday and the media has been all over him after he sent off of West Ham's Sofiane Feghouli, so early in the game against Manchester United.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0B_NDpzFLM

If he had given a yellow at the time, I wonder what the tone from the pundits would have been? How long into the game is it "acceptable" to make such a serious decision? And what did you think about the decision when you first saw it? Even with constant replays and slow-mo I can see why it might have been a sending off offence, but on the other hand.......

Did either of the referee's assistants certainly help him (I wonder what the conversation was like between them as the foul happened and the red card was shown?). Maybe that should be made public? Would video technology have helped the ref in the Feghouli/Jones clash? Possibly. It certainly would have pointed out the offsideness of Ibrahimovic's later goal.

Anything that happened after the sending off was going be compared to this dismissal, so the pundits, coaches and fans were on his back.... Dean was on a slippery slope.

Other ref's have entertained us!

Mike Dean might well be celebrating the goal scored in this match but he is clearly chuffed with allowing play to continue;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StRVqK7xgw4
Here is an interesting response from the Brazilians at the end of this World Cup match in 1978. Clive @The Book@ Thomas from Wales follows the letter of the laa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0JFuWqwFg4
Who could forget Tofik Bakhramov? Was he in line with the goal line?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uhe_l1h3w8

Phil Don, originally, and now Keith Hackett are responsible for the running of the Professional Game Match Officials' Limited. This is to back up referees and provide support such as a sports' pyschologist and a vision scientist. What ever that is? Keith Hackett says that Dean's high profile approach is a strength and not a weakness. You need to have a big personality to put up with everything else that is thrown at you in and around a match. Agreed.

The issue is that the top referees' list is short and one of the best, Mark Clattenburg, might be off to the Chinese League to earn a salary that will match the salaries earned by the multi-millionaires he is trying to be in charge of! With baying fans on his back and minute interpretation from TV cameras, refs deserve to be paid more.

Mark Clattenburg is Global Soccer Awards Referee of the Year 2016 following his performance in the Euro 2016, Champions League Final, FA Cup Final and other important engagements. We are likely to lose him from the PL.

Are you ready for this? Also have a look at the Ref Cam page!
https://you-are-the-ref.com/ref-show-2nd-january-2017/