A Premier League scandal: Should David Coote referee again after controversial video involvement?

There has never been so much talk about officiating as there has been in the Premier League over the last couple of seasons, has there?

Despite the introduction of technology that’s supposed to help referees make correct decisions, which came later in the English top flight than in other top leagues in Europe, there are still too many mistakes, too huge to ignore, sometimes too weird to understand.

And as if that isn’t enough to be going on with, the latest scandal involving a Premier League referee happened off the pitch. A video has surfaced of David Coote making derogatory, even discriminating, remarks about Liverpool and their former manager, Jurgen Klopp.

“German c*nt”, Coote said referring to Klopp, accusing the 57-year-old of arrogance, “sh*t” he called Liverpool, and the man next to him in the video concluded with “long story short, Jurgen Klopp’s a c*nt, Liverpool are all f*cking bellends, and we hate Scousers”.

A part of the job for a referee in the game is to report and punish such behaviour, and the question that naturally imposes itself now is, can David Coote ever be trusted with such tasks again? In short, no. Not if there is any will from the relevant authorities to root out bias and discrimination in football.

Coote has been suspended, until the investigation into this situation has been concluded, and his fate as a referee will obviously depend on its outcome. Coote initially denied the authenticity of the video, but then changed his position to admitting it was genuine, though he still claims he cannot remember its details.

Over the last couple of seasons, Coote was involved in a number of high-profile errors which damaged Liverpool one way or another. He was in the VAR room in the game between Manchester City and Everton when a clear penalty wasn’t awarded to the Toffees after Rodri handled the ball inside the box, which eventually helped City beat Liverpool to the Premier League title by one point in 2021/22.

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The PGMOL later admitted the mistake and apologized to Everton.

He was in the VAR room in the Merseyside Derby at Goodison Park in 2020/21, when he failed to send referee Michael Oliver to the pitch-side screen to review the tackle Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made on Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk, resulting in the Netherlands captain suffering an ACL injury which ruled him out for the remainder of the season. Coote’s explanation for that was that he hadn’t been aware the tackle should be reviewed for a possible red card, as Van Dijk was offside.

There were other examples as well, and until now they seemed like consequences of incompetence, rather than bias. But now, in light of this video, can anyone claim with any certainty that there was no malice involved in those situations?

Apart from the PGMOL, the English FA are conducting an investigation of their own into the matter. Coote faces a misconduct charge, mostly because he insulted Klopp based on the latter’s nationality.

“David Coote is facing a misconduct charge because, in the comments that seem to be made by him in the video, he appears to refer to the nationality of Jurgen Klopp,” Sky Sports journalist Rob Dorsett says. “Derogatory comments could be viewed as an aggravating factor and could lead to a stiffer punishment.”

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Bad feelings towards a club, a team or a coach, can, to an extent, be understandable. Furthermore, it’s normal for a person to speak harshly about someone from work whom they’ve had a hard time with, and Coote indeed had an altercation with Klopp after he refereed a match between Liverpool and Burnley in 2019/20. But a referee, in any sport at any level, should know better than to express such sentiments in front of a camera, and there is no excuse whatsoever for making derogatory remarks about someone’s nationality.

In a second video, Coote begged for the previous one not go any further than the people involved in its making, but let’s face it – it was always going to appear on the internet at some point, and Coote was extremely unwise to believe, or hope for, anything else.

In the aftermath of the scandal, other clubs from around Europe have started using a screenshot of Coote’s face from the video as memes, practically taking the humiliation of Coote and the officiating in the Premier League in general, a step further.

When it’s the third international break of the season and it’s only November pic.twitter.com/NIEOHRZ5bx

— Sevilla FC (@SevillaFC_ENG) November 11, 2024

Whatever the context of the appalling video may be, the fact remains that Coote’s integrity as a referee, as an impartial factor that exists in the game to enforce its rules fairly, has been compromised beyond repair. Consequently, he should never be allowed to officiate a football game again, whether as the man with the whistle on the pitch, or the man in front of the screens in the VAR room.