By Robbie Butler
Many papers in sports economic focus on referee behaviour. This work rests on a load-bearing assumption: referees correctly apply the laws of the game. Whether one measures home bias, added-time effects, card thresholds or anything else the referee does the core questions ask there is a deviation from that neutral baseline? It works because we assume referees are entirely professional and impartial.
This week gave the field an unusually pointed real-world test of that assumption. On the Jamie Vardy's Having a Party podcast, former Premier League referee Mike Dean, who officiated 553 top-flight matches in the English Premier League over more than two decades, described private "games" he played during live matches.
Dean spoke about how he would see how long he could avoid blowing his whistle (once reportedly 20–25 minutes) and how long he could avoid leaving the centre circle (around 15 minutes on one occasion).
While many former referees have rebutted these claims, the fact Dean himself is saying he did this is extraordinary. It also occurred to me that a past paper of my included Mike Dean in the sample. While his admission did not address what we tested, one has to wonder where these “games” ended?
Many papers in sports economic focus on referee behaviour. This work rests on a load-bearing assumption: referees correctly apply the laws of the game. Whether one measures home bias, added-time effects, card thresholds or anything else the referee does the core questions ask there is a deviation from that neutral baseline? It works because we assume referees are entirely professional and impartial.
This week gave the field an unusually pointed real-world test of that assumption. On the Jamie Vardy's Having a Party podcast, former Premier League referee Mike Dean, who officiated 553 top-flight matches in the English Premier League over more than two decades, described private "games" he played during live matches.
Dean spoke about how he would see how long he could avoid blowing his whistle (once reportedly 20–25 minutes) and how long he could avoid leaving the centre circle (around 15 minutes on one occasion).
While many former referees have rebutted these claims, the fact Dean himself is saying he did this is extraordinary. It also occurred to me that a past paper of my included Mike Dean in the sample. While his admission did not address what we tested, one has to wonder where these “games” ended?
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