On Monday morning, English soccer's referee association (PGMOL) announced that it had suspended Premier League ref David Coote after an odd video of him leaked online. In the video, Coote, who appears to be absolutely smacked off of some kind of intoxicating substance, chats some generationally compromising shit. Despite his earlier assertion that someone put a ton of effort into producing a bizarre fake video of a relatively obscure referee talking generationally compromising shit, Coote's since admitted it was indeed him.
In the 96 seconds worth of video across two clips, an as-yet anonymous lad slurring into the camera asks Coote, "Wha—whaddju—what did you think of the Livplainh—Liverpool game earlier, when you were fourth official?" Coote replies, "Liverpool were shit." When the lad asks him what he thinks of Jürgen Klopp, Coote replies, "Cunt, absolute cunt." When asked to elaborate, he said, "Aside from having a right pop at me when I reffed them against Burnley in lockdown, then he accused me of lying and then just had a right fucking pop at me. And I've got no interest in speaking to somebody who's fucking arrogant. So I do my best not to speak to him. Milner's all right." He then stammers for a few seconds and pulls up a photo on his phone showing himself in a mask on the sidelines standing next to James Milner and Klopp.
To make his position on Klopp even more clear, Coote later says, "But, oh my God. German cunt. Fuck me." His host wraps things up nicely, smiling through mostly lidded eyes and what I am probably not allowed to say is a cocaine haze: "Long story short, Jürgen Klopp's a cunt, Liverpool are all fucking bellends, and we hate Scousers." In a second video, Coote says, "Just to be clear, that fucking last video can't go anywhere, seriously." Ah, well.
It's unclear when this video is supposed to have been filmed, but based on the photo Coote holds up on his phone, it appears they're referencing an October 2020 match when Liverpool lost 7-2 to Aston Villa. Coote has been a Prem referee since 2018, and the most prominent game he's been in charge of was the 2023 League Cup final. He's worked 16 Liverpool games in his time, primarily as a VAR official. This past Saturday, Liverpool beat Aston Villa 2-0 at Anfield, and Coote was the head referee, which explains why the video was released the day after.
Saturday's game was marred by a series of controversial decisions. Mohamed Salah was clear through on goal in the 20th minute and was brought down in what should have been a red card, but Coote waved play on and Darwin Núñez scored. In the other direction, Coote missed a penalty offense by Liverpool defender Conor Bradley, leaving former Liverpool striker Michael Owen "astonished" that the Reds got away with it.
Liverpool fans have been mad at this guy for years, however. In 2020 Jordan Pickford ended Virgil van Dijk's season by turning into a missile and destroying the Dutchman's right ACL, yet Coote, who was on VAR duty for that game, backed up Michael Oliver's decision not to penalize Pickford; Oliver later admitted he blew that one. As a VAR official, he also missed an infamous Martin Odegaard handball against Liverpool in Dec. 2023; PGMOL Chief Refereeing Officer Howard Webb later admitted that VAR blew it.
Referees screw up all the time, and while bad calls probably even out over the long term, there's no shaking fans out of the conviction that their team is uniquely persecuted. This is true across all sports, but especially so in soccer, where discrete decisions can decide matches and seasons; the uncalled Rodri handball against Everton in 2022 comes to mind, as City would eventually pip Liverpool to the title by just one point. It's also true that managers are very commonly massive assholes to refs, and Klopp was a repeat offender. It's only natural that a referee would develop a strong negative opinion on a manager who's shown him up on multiple occasions, and the only surprising thing would be if none of Coote's colleagues shared his opinion of the German coach. Nevertheless, a ref cannot be caught saying what Coote said, as it will permanently ruin the credibility and perceived neutrality the referee position depends on.
Shortly after the PGMOL and FA confirmed their investigation and Coote's suspension, Coote "vehemently denied" that the guy in the video was him. This led to a brief period of speculation about the video's provenance, with the amateur Zapruderologists in the Defector soccer Slack channel analyzing the weird, jerky camera zooms and "Coote's" uncannily twitchy facial expressions for telltale signs of AI slop, to inconclusive results. However, just hours later Coote admitted that the video is real, but added that he doesn't remember saying anything of the sort, presumably because he was too geeked up at the time for the events to pass into his hippocampus.
It would've been extremely funny for someone to have created the most convincing deepfake of all time to oust an EPL referee believed to be biased against their team, though said referee lying about someone doing that only to quickly backtrack and claim forgetfulness is still quite funny. Props to Coote also for exhibiting a referee's cool head under (biochemical) pressure by being so articulate while seemingly so intoxicated. And while we're giving plaudits, congrats to the people running VAR for finally getting one right for the first time in recorded soccer history. Red card: upheld.
