Mike Dean shouldn’t be talking to the press about his VAR decision-making

Mike Dean has written an article in a newspaper about his VAR-officiating last weekend, but is there even any point in trying to explain?

So Mike Dean has spoken. After a few days, he has attempted to clarify the somewhat chaotic scenes at the end of the match between Chelsea and Spurs.

In a column in the Daily Mail, Dean explained that Spurs’ first goal could not have been chalked off by VAR as the foul upon which complaints hinged came long before the goal was scored.

So far, so uncontroversial. But his comments on the incident shortly before the second goal, that ‘In the few seconds I had to study Romero pulling Cucurella’s hair, I didn’t deem it a violent act,’ and that ‘I’ve since studied the footage, spoken to other referees and, upon reflection, I should have asked Taylor to visit his pitch-side monitor to take a look for himself,’ have understandably caused even more comment.

That he should have been writing a column like this is unusual, because there is no culture in this country of referees explaining the decisions they’ve made after matches. There have been growing calls for this to happen following a spate of calls that have caused outrage, but should referees and other officials be explaining themselves after matches? And what does it say about football discourse in the 21st century that this article should even have been written?

Because first things first, if this is to be the way in which things are done from now on, why on earth are people finding out through a column in a newspaper rather than any sort of official channel? And if these explanations and regrets are now to be expressed, is it now to be done in this sort of scattergun way, with only ‘big’ matches, or matches involving Dean, or matches involving clubs with big, angry, petition-organising fan bases?

Should fans be double-checking which match Dean will be at every week because that match will get a similar write-up from a senior official in the following week’s press?

Match officials explaining their decisions would be a big change in the post-match culture of the game in this country, and we might have expected it to come through the Premier League itself. We can only assume that Dean had some sort of sign-off to write this article (are they happy with one of their officials making money – presuming he was paid – from controversial refereeing decisions?). But it feels as though if this has to happen, it should probably be done through the…