Mike Dean has admitted that he decided not to send a referee to a VAR screen last season, as he didn't want a colleague to get "any more grief".
The former Premier League referee was working as a video assistant referee during a fiery 2-2 Premier League draw between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge last August.
The game is remembered for a less-than-friendly post-match handshake between then-managers Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte, which appeared to stem from a number of controversial on-pitch clashes.
At one point, referee Anthony Taylor failed to sanction Spurs defender Cristian Romero for pulling the hair of Marc Cucurella, and Dean has now revealed the reason why he didn't advise Taylor to go to the VAR monitor to review the incident.
Mike Dean makes shocking VAR admission
"I missed the stupid hair pull at Chelsea versus Tottenham which was pathetic from my point of view," Dean said on Simon Jordan's Up Front podcast.
"It’s one of them where if I had my time again, what would I do? I’d send Anthony to the screen. I think I knew if I did send him to the screen, he’s cautioned both managers...
"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.”
Mike Dean speaks about dreading VAR duties
Sitting in the VAR room, Dean officially deemed the hair-pull as not being a foul, and this is one of the reasons why he was stood down from his duties for one round of fixtures afterwards.
In the days after the game, Dean admitted that he had made a mistake, but this latest revelation that he was protecting a friend rather than making the right decision leaves a bit of a sour taste.
On the podcast, Dean added that he dreaded officiating games in his only season as a video assistant referee.
"I used to get in the car on a Friday and was dreading Saturday," he said. "I was thinking: ‘I hope nothing happens.’ I used to be petrified sitting in the VAR chair."
At the start of this season, Sky Sports confirmed that Dean would be joining the Soccer Saturday panel as a pundit, mainly overseeing refereeing decisions.
