Jamie Redknapp has labelled Mike Dean’s decision so send off Tomas Soucek in yesterday’s draw between West Ham and Fulham ‘genuinely worrying’ and called on the referee to ‘be the big man’ and admit he got the call wrong.
Soucek was sent off in stoppage time after his arm brushed the face of Fulham forward Aleksandar Mitrovic while the pair were tussling ahead of a free-kick.
It looked little more than an accident but the Serbian went down and after a lengthy VAR review, Dean consulted the pitch side monitor and eventually decided to send off the Hammers midfielder.
Irons boss David Moyes called the decision an embarrassment and, speaking on Sky Sports after the game, Redknapp voiced his concern.
"What is happening to our game?," he said. "We all love football, but when you see decisions like that… you can blame Mike Dean, VAR, whoever you want. What is he seeing there? He goes over to the screen and still decides to give him a red card.
"He's tried to get his arm out of the way. Mitrovic has tried to grab him, and he lifts his arm to get it out of the way, and completely by accident he catches him. What is football coming to when we give that as a red card? Even the players can't believe it.
"Mike Dean has had so many years officiating, and he thinks he's meant to do that? This is why people get so frustrated when people watch football now, when they see things like that. It goes away from what we love about the game.
"The fact that Mike Dean went over there and though it was a red card is a genuine worry for me. I would love to see Mike Dean come out and be the big man, say he's looked at it overnight and admit that he's made a huge mistake."
