Mike Dean is one of the most recognisable referees in the Premier League - but back in the early 1990s, it was a different type of fowl he was dealing with. Before becoming the famous whistler that he is today, Dean worked in a chicken factory, helping to slaughter 135,000 chickens a day. The 53-year-old, whose on-pitch persona has made him a firm favourite among supporters, began refereeing in the 1980s as a way to lose weight. Working his way through the ranks of the Northern Premier League and the Football League, Dean combined his time as an official with his job at the chicken factory. He worked in the poultry business for 16 years before quitting to become a full-time referee, making his debut in the Premier League in 2000.
Speaking to Soccer AM star Tubes on his Golf Life YouTube channel, Dean revealed gory details of life before the whistle, including the method used to kill the chickens. "I used to work in a poultry factory about five miles from here," Dean said. "I started there in about 1991 or 1992 I think. I used to work in the factory to start with, packing up all the chicken fillets and stuff like that. Then I moved to the other end where, let's just say, we welcomed them in alive and they didn't leave alive. By about the second or third week [in the job], I started hanging them. Asked about the method used to kill chickens, and whether it involved wringing the bird's neck, he replied: "No, no, you hang them upside down, it's all done by machines and stuff like that. You're killing 135,000 chickens a day so you haven't got time to do all that. I still speak to some of the lads that work there now and they're killing nearly a million chickens a week. It's a proper foul job," Dean joked.
In an interview on the Peter Crouch podcast in 2020, Dean explained how he used to balance life at the chicken factory with his burgeoning career in refereeing. He said: "I was doing refereeing anyway like local stuff and I would do both jobs. I would start in the factory at 6am do my shift until 2pm, go home get my bag and drive to wherever to referee, go back home and get up again at 3am and straight back into work at 5am."
Source: Daily Star
