Referee Mike Dean withdraws from this weekend’s Premier League action following death threats to family

Mike Dean has opted against refereeing any Premier League games this weekend after he and his family were subjected to death threats last week.

The referee controversially sent off West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek late in the Hammers' top-flight draw against Fulham last week and also issued a red card to Southampton defender Jan Bednarek in the 9-0 defeat at Manchester United - both decisions have since been overturned.

Watch: Soucek shown controversial red card despite opposition player pleading innocence

Dean will be in charge of the FA Cup fifth-round tie between Leicester and Brighton on Wednesday night, but has asked not to be involved in a Premier League match at the weekend.

Referees' chief Mike Riley offered the organisation's full support to Dean and condemned the abuse.

"Threats and abuse of this nature are totally unacceptable and we fully support Mike's decision to report these messages his family received to the police," Riley said in a PGMOL statement.

"Nobody should be victim of abhorrent messages like this.

"Online abuse is unacceptable in any walk of life and more needs to be done to tackle the problem."

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters added his voice to the growing calls for social media companies to take direct action.

"It is inexcusable that Mike Dean and his family have received online abuse, including death threats, as a result of doing his job officiating at a Premier League match," Masters said in a statement.

"It is completely unacceptable that we are seeing abusive behaviour aimed at players, managers and match officials regularly on social media platforms.

"Mike and his family have our full support in reporting this to the police.

"This once again highlights the need for greater proactive intervention from social media companies to stop online abuse and identify offenders."

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