Referee Mike Dean is a man used to making decisions. Big ones. In front of thousands and thousands of people who reckon they know better.

Not that it bothers him. "It's a case of swings and roundabouts, " he muses. "If you look at the season as a whole the number of decisions that go in favour and those that go against your team is fairly balanced.

But when it comes to giving a red card - its gut reaction. You just know."

In January of this year, Mike became the first person from Wirral to be promoted to the heady-heights of refereeing for FIFA (Federation of International Football Association) - fantastic recognition for a bloke who originally got into the vocation simply to shed some unwanted pounds.

"It was 1985 and I was the best part of around 17 or 18 stone," explains Mike as we chat in the sun-filled living room of his home in Heswall.

"I wanted to trim down and refereeing seemed like a fun way to go about it."

Mike undertook a six-week course in refereeing at Poulton Victoria Social Club in Wallasey, qualifying with his class three certification and a taste for the profession.

With each of his matches being watched by an assessor, Mike progressed through the ranks - from refereeing under 12s and under 16s around the Eastham district to the Sunday leagues, reaching linesman status for the Football League in 1995. The millennium brought with it promotion to the Premiership and his first opportunity to hold sway over the big names in the sport.

I ask Mike if he's ever been star-struck which he laughs off immediately. "At the end of the day, they're just blokes playing a game. David Beckham, for example, he's just a normal bloke, just a footballer. It's the people that hang round him that make the difference and a lot of the time you have to ask yourself what it is they're after."

Mike is a family man, with wife Karam and daughters Zara, 14 and Brittany aged five. The little one likes to watch daddy on telly and wherever possible, Mike's games are a chance for the family to go and offer some support for the fella in the black shirt in the middle.

Refereeing professionally proved to pay well enough for Mike to give the red card to his days working in the poultry industry. I ask him in the politest way possible what a referee earns and I get a mixture of the cryptic and the frank. "What you read in the papers, that's roughly true. I get a salary every month, plus a payment per game I referee.

It's £525 for a Premier League game, £250 for a Nationwide. As a Fourth Official you get half."

With training and travel, refereeing demands great commitment.

But Mike is living proof you can get to the top - and it's a great view of the pitch when you do!