Mike Dean: When VAR first came in, I hated it

Former Premier League referee Mike Dean has told William Hill’s podcast, Up Front with Simon Jordan, that he hated when VAR was brought into football as he “didn’t want to accept it”.

Featuring on William Hill’s Up Front with Simon Jordan, a podcast hosted by the former Crystal Palace owner who speaks to sports stars and celebrities and challenges their opinions whilst scrutinising their careers, the experienced official was against the idea of VAR when it was first introduced in the 2019/20 season: “When it first came in, I hated VAR because I had refereed for 19 years and I didn’t want someone telling me I’d made a mistake. It is part of the game now and having got my head around it, I was probably a bit selfish initially by trying to look after myself, but I had refereed for 19 years in the best league and then I was getting advice that I probably needed but I didn’t want to accept.

“Everything changes for a reason and looking at it now, would I have had the same view on it four years ago if I knew what I know now? No. I would have embraced it a hell of a lot more. It is 100% improving the game and the way it’s moved in the last four or five years, it’s massive.

“In another 10 years, it could have moved more with the likes of automated offsides which will probably come in sooner rather than later. We had a chance this year but chose not to use them. What I think they’ll do is try to get it in a competition next year with the Euros or something like that and then we’ll embrace it then. It will be a quicker decision where the assistant referee will be told if it’s offside or not and then his flag can go up in the air.

Referees expected to change decision when checking VAR screen  

Sticking with VAR, Dean discussed that referees almost always change their on-field decision when they are sent to the VAR monitor on the side of the pitch, as he said: “I’ve probably been over to the screen five or six times and for at least two of them, I could have stuck with my initial decision.

“Straight away, Manchester United versus Southampton comes to mind as I went to the screen for something and I sent a player off, which was completely wrong, but because you have gone to the screen, nine times out of 10 you are expected to change your decision. When I was there, 99 times out of 100 you would change your decision.

“I think that will change because if you made a decision on the pitch and you made the correct call, when you’re walking over to the screen, you’re thinking to yourself ‘Why am I being sent here? I know what I have seen.’ The more you stick with your on-field decision, the more credibility you get from spectators, managers, and players. Also, it may stop VAR from sending a referee over to the screen every single time something happens. Have they got to go over every time? In my opinion, they haven’t.”

Hooper’s missed penalty was an easy decision  

Moving on to some of the recent Premier League matches, Dean shared his opinion on Simon Hooper’s controversial decision to not award Wolverhampton Wanderers with a penalty against Manchester United on the opening weekend.

“In the full duration of a game, I would be devastated not to see that decision,” the international official said. “In isolation, giving a penalty against Andre Onana is an easy decision to make as the keeper has come out, flapped at the ball, and missed it. When a keeper comes out and misses the ball by an inch, I get that, but from a VAR point of view, he’s come out and flapped at the ball and then put his two arms together to take the attacker out.

“I think it’s an easy decision for a referee to make on the pitch, but I think it’s an even easier decision to make for VAR because you have all the information available to you. I understand that it was into the 90-plus minutes, but that should make no difference.”