Mike Dean enjoyed a 28-year career as a professional official, stepping down from on-field officiating in 2022. Former Premier League referee Mike Dean says he did not intend to "undermine the integrity of refereeing" after claiming that he used to play mini-games to amuse himself during matches.

Dean had told Jamie Vardy's podcast that he would try to go as long as possible without blowing his whistle, or stay standing in the centre circle. "We used to say, 'we'll kick off now. Right, see how long we can go without blowing a whistle,'" Dean said. "I've done that a few times in the Premier League, before VAR obviously - went 20, 25 minutes without blowing a whistle."

The 58-year-old has come in for considerable criticism for his comments with another former Premier League referee, Mark Halsey, telling BBC Sport that it had added extra pressure on officials today. Dean posted a statement on his Instagram story on Friday where he did not retract his claim, but sought to explain the context.

"Throughout my 25 years as a professional referee, I have always applied the Laws of the Game to the best of my ability," Dean wrote. "My approach as a referee was always to allow the game to flow and whenever possible I preferred to apply a high threshold for contact which the players liked. However, if I saw a foul challenge that needed me to take the appropriate action I would give it from the correct position. At no stage was it my intention to question, criticise or undermine the integrity of refereeing in this country. I have always respected the profession and the responsibility that comes with being a referee."

But is there any evidence that Dean did in fact play these games? Halsey said it would be "impossible" to hold the whistle for just a few minutes, let alone more than 20. So BBC Sport looked at the Premier League games officiated by Dean from 2008-09 until 2018-19, when the video assistant referee was introduced. The focus was on 214 games that were 0-0 after 15 minutes, meaning there would be no need for a whistle for a kick-off after a goal.

Are there any games which might provide evidence that Dean was playing around? Only four such examples could be found, with no game reaching 20 minutes. The longest was 18 minutes 20 seconds for a game involved Crystal Palace and Stoke. The evidence did back up Dean's claim to have "a high threshold", with no real evidence of obviously missed free-kicks. Dean could have awarded a free-kick to Sunderland after 11 minutes but chose to play advantage.

Plenty of goals in this game, but Sunderland did not take the lead until deep into first-half stoppage time. So, plenty of time for Dean to hold his whistle? The game was 13 minutes 39 seconds old before the referee first needed to use the whistle. The ball had gone out of play for a throw, and it looked like a Sunderland player was going to try to continue. To be fair, not much had happened before that which warranted a whistle. A Sunderland player was brought down on 11 minutes 21 seconds, which was definitely a foul, and Dean played an advantage. It was a valid decision, but many officials may have stopped the game.

Another game which was uneventful with no foul or offside in the opening changes. The match was 16 minutes 42 seconds old when Alejandro Faurlin was fouled and won a free-kick. But would this match even count? Dean did blow the whistle at six minutes 25 seconds because a throw-in was not taken in the right place. Would this count as a breaker for Dean's little game?

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Dean had the chance to blow his whistle after eight minutes but allowed play to continue. This might be the best example of Dean allowing the game to flow and not blowing his whistle. It was 18 minutes 20 seconds in before he gave a free-kick for a foul on Stoke City's Ramadan Sobhi. There was an incident on eight mins when he could have given a free-kick to Xherdan Shaqiri. But other than that, there was no case for a missed foul.

Dean finally blew his whistle at Selhurst Park after 16 minutes 3 seconds, awarding a free-kick to Hamza Choudhury. That is a fair way into the match again, but not close to his claim to have gone 20-25 minutes into a game without stopping it. However, the referee blew the whistle on three minutes eight seconds to indicate a corner had been awarded. So it is difficult to say this one really counts.

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