Mike Dean, from Heswall in The Wirrall, Cheshire and is in his eighth Premiership season. At 39, he is one of the Barclaycard Premiership's youngest referees, but the Merseyside shift supervisor turned full-time ref has already taken charge of a FA Community Shield and so should be undaunted by the league's multi-millionaire stars. Mike was suspended by the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL)for the last 3 months of 2004/2005. He had got himself involved with Arbitros (Spanish for ‘referees’) Racing, an online horse racing syndicate, and an advert in the Racing Post read “Join Premiership referee Mike Dean in this exciting new venture.” This was against the terms of his contract, as he was using his status to his advantage.He also failed to request permission to get involved. He was suspended on the eve of Newcastle vs Bolton, which he was due to referee at St James’ Park, and was replaced by Steve Dunn. He was later suspended until 31st May, and returned to the Premiership in late August after coming home from a Turkey tournament.Ref Dean has been present at a number of key moments in Fulham's recent history. He was in-charge of the game against Wolves which ended our record breaking 10 game winning run in 1999-2000, he was in-charge of our first Premiership home game, he was in-charge of the game where Barthez out psyched Steed over a penalty, he was in-charge of the Middlesbrough game when Fulham scored two in the last few moments to take a draw with Gentleman Jim nearly bursting a blood vessel, the brawl at West Brom and most recently he was in charge of the delicious victory against the Blues of Fulham Broadway. We have won three of the nine premiership games Mr Dean has managed. In his nine games he has issued 33 yellow and 5 red cards which is above average for Premiership games. On a more positive note of the cards he has issued Fulham players received 13 yellows and 3 reds and 5 of the yellows and 2 of the reds were in the rumble at The Hawthorns.Hopefully Mr Dean has a quiet game that ends in a Fulham win on Sunday.

Referee Stats - 2006/2007
Ref Dean's whistle useage rate so far this  season is a bit higher than his career average while  his yellow and red per match figure is currently at an all time high.It seems that Mr Dean's suspension following involvement in a horse racing syndicate may have left him a bit annoyed as he has turned into Mr Angry. This season he is now the top yellow and red carder in the Premiership.	Mr. Bennett's Av Premiership Ref Total Match Avg Pos Total Match Avg Games 9             7       Fouls 236 26.2 7th 177 25.0 Yellows 48 5.3 1st 24 3.4 Reds 4 0.4 1st 1 0.2 Penalties 2 0.2 7th 1 0.2 Fouls per Yellow - 4.9 1st - 7.4

Homer? (2006-2007) Total Home Away Total Games Fouls Yellow Red Pen Fouls Yellow Red Pen Fouls Yellow Red Pen 9 133 26 2 2 103 22 2 0 236 48 4 2       56% 54% 50% 100% 44% 46% 50% 0%                         Premiership Average 7 50% 44% 62% 76% 50% 56% 38% 24% 177 24 1 1

Ref Dean's foul and yellow stats could indicate an unusual anti-home bias . At least with penalty decisions he is favouring home squads at the moment. Hopefully he is even handed all round on Sunday.