Mike Dean has bizarrely suggested the coming together between Ruben Dias and Rasmus Hojlund in Sunday’s Manchester derby was not enough to warrant a penalty ‘in a game like this’.
With United 1-0 down, Dias sent Hojlund tumbling to the floor with a clumsy challenge inside the box.
Hojlund and his United teammates screamed for a penalty but Anthony Taylor waved away the protests, while VAR also failed to intervene.
“The referee’s call of no penalty for the challenge between Højlund and Dias was checked and confirmed by VAR, deeming it was normal contact,” the Premier League’s Match Centre account explained on X.
Commentating on the match live for Sky Sports, former Man Utd captain Gary Neville believes the Red Devils certainly had a case for a spot-kick.
“It was clumsy, that we do know,” said Neville (via BBC Sport). “It may have just been a coming together but Dias seemed to step across the Manchester United striker. I think there’s something in it, his left leg goes across Hojlund’s knee.”
Sky cut to their studio referee and former Premier League official Mike Dean, who bizarrely claimed the clash didn’t warrant a penalty ‘in a game like this’.
“I thought it was a natural coming together,” said Dean, adding: “I don’t think that’s enough in a game like this.”
From VAR to scandals, Premier League referees have come under an immense amount of pressure in recent years.
Dean’s comments are likely to invite more scrutiny, effectively confirming what many already suggest is true: that referees officiate certain games differently from others.
Dean saying that Dias’ clash with Hojlund isn’t enough to warrant a penalty ‘in a game like this’ suggests he would award a spot-kick for a similar incident in a game between, for example, Nottingham Forest and West Ham.
Or would Man Utd have been given the penalty had they been playing lesser opposition, rather than the current Premier League champions in a derby match?
Surely, all matches should be refereed to the same standards, with incidents like fouls in the box objective decisions rather than something judged on the magnitude of a particular fixture.
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