Mike Dean Is Staying In The Premier League, To Carry On Career As A VAR Official

Mike Dean is staying in the Premier League, with the referee to swap his whistle for a video screen to become a VAR official next season.

Everyone's favourite referee, Dean, decided to call time on his career as the 'w***er in black' at the end of the season, after over 20 years at the top level of the game.

The emotional end to his 560 match career came as Chelsea defeated Watford at Stamford Bridge, thanks to Ross Barkley's injury time winner.

There had been lots of talk about what the 54-year-old might do next, with the former referee soon becoming favourite to appear on I'm A Celebrity: Get Me Out Of Here.

However, that's not likely to be the case now, with the Tranmere Rovers fan set to become the Premier League's VAR official at Stockley Park.

It means he will only be looking at screens to decide which decisions should be overturned or not, a role he's obviously played previously but now will only exclusively be in the booth and not on the pitch.

Dean during his final game. Image: Alamy

It is not the only change at the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, PGMOL, who run the referees, after a year of a lot of criticism towards officials.

Mike Riley is leaving a referees chief and it's expected that Howard Webb will return to England to take the role, when his current job in the US ends, something that Manchester United fans will be pleased to learn.

Jonathan Moss and Martin Atkinson joined Dean in hanging up their whistles when the most recent league campaign came to an end.

The pair will move into coaching and management roles, whilst Kevin Friend will do similar but within the group of refs for the Championship.

Dean was in charge at City's first Premier League title win. Image: Alamy

Probably the most famous moment that Dean was involved in, from a sporting point of view rather than his own usual glory, was Manchester City's title win in 2012.

He revealed recently that had Sergio Aguero been on a yellow card when he decided to celebrate by taking his shirt off in the last minute, then Dean wouldn't have given him the second yellow card.

With it being the end of his career, the official was clearly happier to open up on his career, and admitted that Arsene Wenger intimidated him, something the Frenchman couldn't believe.