Just under a month after a video was released of David Coote launching a foul-mouthed tirade at Jurgen Klopp, the Premier League referee has been sacked.
The PGMOL — Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, the organisation that manages English football’s leading officials — found Coote’s conduct in relation to that video and subsequent allegations that he snorted white powder the day after working as part of the Video Assistant Referee team at a Euro 2024 match to be a “serious breach of the provisions of his employment contract” and described his position as “untenable”. Coote reserves the right to appeal his dismissal.
This is not the first crisis to hit English refereeing in the Premier League era — Bobby Madley was sacked in 2018 after PGMOL was sent video of him making offensive comments about disabled people — but it is the gravest.
This is the story of what happened, how PGMOL dealt with the crisis and what the ramifications could be.
It was November 11 when Coote’s life — and PGMOL’s world — was turned upside down.
A video was leaked online that allegedly showed Coote describing Klopp, the former Liverpool manager, as a “German c***”, when talking about Liverpool’s fixture against Burnley in July 2020.
“He (Klopp) accused me of lying and then just had a right f***ing pop at me,” Coote said in the video. “I’ve got no interest in speaking to someone who’s f***ing arrogant. I do my best not to speak to him. You can see me there with (a) mask on. Social distancing — 10 metres apart. But my God, German c***, f*** me.”
Coote, 42, was immediately suspended by the PGMOL, the Football Association (FA) launched an investigation, and he was suspended by UEFA, European football’s governing body.
Ben Kitt, the man filmed alongside Coote in the video — which was recorded shortly after Liverpool had lost 7-2 to Aston Villa in October 2020 (a game in which Coote was fourth official) — was suspended by his employer, Forsyth Barnes, an executive search firm, the following day.
The company launched its own investigation into Kitt, which confirmed in a statement to The Athletic that no further action had been taken against him on the basis that the video had been made before he joined the company. It confirmed that Kitt “acknowledges his mistakes during a moment of poor judgment”.
Coote’s problems, however, were only just starting. Two days after the first video leaked online, Coote was hit by more allegations. The Sun, a British newspaper, published a video which showed someone they alleged was Coote sniffing white powder through a rolled-up U.S. bank note. They said the video was from July 6, the day after the Euro 2024 quarter-final between France and Portugal in Hamburg where Coote was the assistant VAR.
The Athletic has been unable to verify the video nor confirm Coote’s identity, but the PGMOL did confirm that they were taking the new allegations “very seriously”. UEFA announced they had opened an investigation into Coote which remains ongoing, despite his dismissal from PGMOL.
The third allegation to be made against Coote was on November 26, when The Sun reported that Coote had discussed issuing a yellow card with a supporter before the game he was refereeing. That investigation is related to an 18th-minute booking Coote issued to Leeds United’s Ezgjan Alioski during their game against West Bromwich Albion in October 2019.
Jurgen Klopp confronts David Coote after Liverpool’s game against Burnley in 2020 (Phil Noble/Pool via Getty Images)
The Sun reported that Coote accepted a discussion with a friend took place, but that nothing came of it, nor was it suggested that the referee gained financially from issuing the booking.
“I strongly refute these false and defamatory allegations,” Coote said in a statement, his first public comment since being suspended. “Whatever issues I may have had in my personal life they have never affected my decision making on the field. I have always held the integrity of the game in the highest regard, refereeing matches impartially and to the best of my ability.”
While the FA has launched an investigation into the booking allegations, those claims did not play any role in PGMOL’s decision to dismiss Coote. That judgment was based solely on the first two allegations — the video of Coote abusing Klopp from 2020, and the footage of him apparently snorting white powder taken in the summer of 2024.
Coote was involved in the disciplinary process, which lasted 28 days in total, and provided evidence to PGMOL as it weighed up whether there was any route back for him.
Ultimately, according to a source at PGMOL, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they did not have permission to talk, the cumulation of allegations in those two videos made Coote’s position untenable.
The storm of controversy that has engulfed Coote, and his employers at PGMOL, feels far removed from the quiet corner of Nottinghamshire which the referee calls home.
Coote originally comes from a village outside Newark, a market town with a strong grassroots sports scene. His father, David Sr, was a keen cricketer who played one match for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, as well as being a footballer in the local amateur leagues. As a boy, Coote was also part of Nottinghamshire’s youth set-up.
His uncle, Mick, was another renowned cricketer, once known as ‘Animal’ in local leagues because of the speed of his bowling.
“Having known the family for 40 years, I just find it tremendously sad and feel it personally,” says Tony Smith, a friend of Coote’s and the former sports editor of the Newark Advertiser weekly newspaper. “Whatever the rights or wrongs, the main issue is how the lad himself is feeling.
“We have to think about him and it is up to us (Newark people) to look after our own. I just hope, mental-health-wise, the kid’s OK because he’s a really good lad and I love him to bits. What he is going through right now is a hell of a lot for one person to take on their shoulders.”
Smith worked on the local newspaper for 25 years and remains, in his retirement, the voice of Newark sport, presenting a regular show on the town’s radio station.
“It’s a very close-knit family,” says Smith, who was speaking to The Athletic just after the first tranche of video allegations against Coote, involving his attack on Klopp. “He (Coote) started running the line for Wheatsheaf United in the Newark Alliance when he was 12 years old.
“His dad was playing as the centre-half and if anybody had a go at the little 12-year-old linesman with his little flag, they also had to deal with his dad and his uncle, who was also playing for Wheatsheaf. So, for the first three years of his officialdom, ‘Cootey’ had his own bouncers.
“When he proved very adept at refereeing, he was fast-tracked through the system. He was so proud to be a Premier League referee. Of all the sportspeople who have come from Newark and received national acclaim, he has to be in the top five.
“So the support he will get from the Newark community will be second from none. The town will rally round him, especially the refereeing community, because he is their shining light.”
Locally, they are also aware that Coote, described as an ardent Notts County fan in his younger years, has endured difficult times in the last couple of seasons. His mother died last year and his uncle Mick was diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
According to his LinkedIn page, Coote graduated with a law degree from Nottingham Trent University in 2004, the same year he joined the Nottinghamshire FA as a referee development officer.
He became a national list referee in 2010, refereeing the League One play-off final in 2014, before becoming a full-time Championship official in 2016. Two years later he was promoted to the Premier League list and had remained there ever since.
Towards the end of last season, when the debate around keeping VAR was vociferous, the PGMOL opted to do more towards using dedicated VARs. There is an unofficial group of officials, considered most effective at using the system, that are regularly selected as VARs and Coote was among that group. He was picked as one of the VARs for Euro 2024 and there was a similarly high regard for his abilities at PGMOL.
Coote worked his way up the leagues as a referee (Pete Norton/Getty Images)
“David is a nice guy and I always found him to be hardworking, diligent and sensible,” said Jon Moss, the former Premier League referee, in an interview with The Athletic published last week. “I hope that PGMOL conduct their investigations and when it comes to it he can move on either as a referee or in some other walk of life.”
In May 2023, Coote gave an interview to the Newark Advertiser and discussed the highs and lows that come with being a top-flight referee.
“The most enjoyable part of the job is easy — I was stood just a couple of metres behind Michael Keane when he scored a 30-yard last-minute equaliser against Tottenham recently,” Coote said. “It is those special sporting moments and seeing some of the best players in the world at their finest that stand out as highlights.
“The least enjoyable aspect of the job is the impact it can have on close friends and family. There is a large amount of time spent away from home and a lot of scrutiny that is ever-increasing.”
Before the first video was leaked in November, Coote is unlikely to have faced such scrutiny as a referee. On any given Saturday afternoon, match officials don’t want to become the story. A good game for them is if nobody mentions their performance.
But Coote became the story and has seen his career, something he was immensely proud of, come to a premature end in England.
The crisis sparked by the Coote episode has been both personal and institutional.
While the referee himself has been forced to confront the end of his English elite refereeing career, and the turmoil that inevitably comes with being the face of a tabloid scandal, the PGMOL has been in crisis mode.
The body’s reputation has been severely dented, at a time when it feels as if referees are under more scrutiny than ever before.
Webb is trying to make the organisation more transparent — he appears on a monthly TV programme, Mic’d Up, in which controversial decisions are analysed. While these interventions are often designed to explain why a referee has made a certain call, and defend them from criticism, occasionally bad judgments are acknowledged.
Webb appeared at a Premier League shareholders’ meeting in a central London hotel on November 22. Although Coote was mentioned during the get-together, it was only in passing, with a statement read out. No clubs asked any questions about Coote.
PGMOL chief Howard Webb has tried to make refereeing more transparent for fans (Tom Dulat/Getty Images for Premier League)
That does not mean, however, that no harm has been done.
“Unfortunately, these stories, whether you believe them or not, will undoubtedly cause damage,” Moss told The Athletic last week. “Some fans already had that perception of referees and this will add fuel to the fire. All the people I worked with have always had the best interest of the game at heart. And I would hope that will continue as well.”
“It’s damaging for everybody involved,” Mike Dean, a former Premier League referee, told Sky Sports on November 12. “It will devastate referees from grassroots all the way to the Football League. As referees you can’t put yourself in that position. You can say things away from camera, you can talk amongst your friends and colleagues, but you can’t let somebody video this and then hope that it’s never going to come out.”
People briefed on the matter have told The Athletic that Premier League officials are not subjected to drug testing, nor are they likely to introduce it given it is not something any other league does.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) only goes as far as saying international federations “may also have general rules relating to referees being in a fit state to officiate” but that “is not something that would be covered under the scope of the World Anti-Doping Code”.
Understanding the scrutiny that their referees face, the PGMOL has made a conscious effort to improve their offering when it comes to supporting the officials.
Their statements — including the one that confirmed Coote had been sacked — have continued to stress that Coote’s well-being was at the forefront of their concerns.
PGMOL declined to offer details of what kind of support Coote was offered throughout the process, or what that assistance could look like in the future, but the body has added resources to its support network for referees and staff, including a dedicated psychology, mental health and wellbeing team. Each official also has a dedicated coach or manager who can offer mental and emotional support when called upon.
There will be some difficult days ahead for Coote as he comes to terms with how his career, in England at least, has come to such an abrupt end. But the same applies to PGMOL, who will pray that the fallout from this damaging affair does not do lasting damage.
Additional reporting: Daniel Taylor
(Top photo: Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images))
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