Celebrity Referee Mike Dean was the main talking point following Manchester United's win at West Ham on Monday, following a string of contentious decisions along with some of his finest viral moments to date, the greatest being his whistling the tune of DaRude's Sandstorm.
Mike Dean whistling Sandstorm by Darude. The man is blessed. #CelebrityRefs
(via @TestHostyrone)
pic.twitter.com/6PIMRhmUT1— Celebrity Refs (@CelebrityRefs) January 2, 2017
Dean had been in the news (in Ireland, at least), after Stephen Hunt's Sunday Independent column calling Dean the most arrogant man he has encountered on a football field.
Following Dean's performance at the London Stadium, Niall Quinn echoed Hunt's thoughts:
He got it disgracefully wrong, in my opinion.
This fella does it time and time again, I mean I try very hard doing this job to understand how difficult it is for referees and not just jump on the bandwagon, but time and time again I look at this guy and his arrogance alone in wanting to be the man, and I suppose, running the show and looking the part and it puts me off.
I'm delighted to make an exception in this case and call him for this, this is rank bad refereeing.
The incident which triggered Quinn's surprisingly withering dismissal was Dean's dismissal of Soufiane Feghouli fifteen minutes into the game, for an extremely innocuous challenge on Phil Jones. It was the quickest red card of the season, and the F.A. have today confirmed that Dean fecked it up, and have lifted Feghouli's three-match ban.
Karren Brady confirmed the news:
I have just received a call to confirm Sofiane will not be required to serve a 3 match suspension and is eligible to play friday
— Lady Karren Brady (@karren_brady) January 4, 2017
Feghouli and West Ham face Man City in the F.A. Cup on Friday.
