MIKE DEAN has landed himself a new job less than 24 hours after his top-level football career finished.
The iconic former Premier League referee has quit football after 28 years in the game.
Mike Dean has landed himself a new job just 24 hours after he left English football
The 55-year-old is leaving his role as a video assistant referee.
We reported how he had reached an agreement with Howard Webb, the head of the Professional Game Match Officials, to leave his role following a number of VAR controversies last season.
That was after Dean was found to be unsuited to VAR duties.
However, Sky Sports have now announced that he joining the new-look Soccer Saturday show to offer insight from the perspective of the match official.
Dean, who started his career in the Football League as a linesman, stopped officiating at the end of the 2021/22 Premier League campaign.
He then started a new role as one of two full-time VAR officials with PGMOL.
But that switch has not panned out as expected and he did not receive a top-flight appointment from February.
Although the other full-time VAR official, Lee Mason, did last shorter than Dean.
He was stood down from the role following a huge error in Arsenal’s draw with Brentford in February.
Now Dean will be looking forward to beginning his new job in the much-changed hit Sky Sports show.
We reported yesterday how Simon Thomas has won the race to replace Jeff Stelling as the host of Soccer Saturday.
The former Blue Peter presenter, 50, is allegedly the choice to fill the void left by the legendary host, who departed Sky Sports at the end of last season.
There had been much speculation over who would fill the void with fellow Sky presenters Jules Warren and Caroline Barker also understood to be in the running.
Thomas quit full-time broadcast work six years ago following the tragic death of his wife Gemma.
She passed away just three days after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
Thomas, who was born in Norwich, had worked in the broadcasting industry for 18 years but took time off to look after his son, aged eight.
He left his role as lead football presenter of Sky in the process but had returned to work by freelancing for various platforms and channels.
Stelling called time on his position as host of Soccer Saturday after 30 years in May.
Reports then emerged suggesting that he had been in talks with Amazon and the BBC over a return to broadcasting.
However, this will now not be happening until at least NEXT YEAR.
The 68-year-old has no plans to retire but he has been placed on gardening leave until December.
Stelling did, however, make a one-off Countdown comeback in June as the dictionary corner’s special guest while Rachel Riley put on a leggy display for his return.
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