Let’s start with the obvious – if the videos that have emerged purporting to show Premier League referee David Coote embarking on a foul-mouthed rant about Liverpool and their former manager Jürgen Klopp are genuine, then he is not a smart man.
Coote has been suspended by the PGMOL pending an investigation into his conduct, and the refereeing body has stated that they are treating the videos, which were posted to social media, as genuine. To make matters worse for Coote, further footage has since emerged which allegedly shows him “snorting white powder” while in Germany for Euro 2024.
Nobody with half of a functioning brain would allow themselves to be filmed under such circumstances, and should the videos prove to be legitimate, then they will damage the image of English referees – already in a less-than-healthy state – not only because it will make them look like idiots by association, but also because it will fuel theories concerning their alleged biases.
Coote’s supposed verdict on Liverpool, and particularly on Klopp, are flecked with far too many four-letter words for them to be repeated here, but they have inevitably raised the hackles of plenty of the club’s supporters. After all, if someone has developed such strength of feeling towards a club and its coach, they may well be making decisions that disadvantage them, whether consciously or unconsciously.
Plenty of people are capable of setting their frustrations or prejudices aside in professional setting, of course, and Coote may well be among them. Besides, whenever officiating decisions go against your team, it’s always worth bearing Hanlon’s Razor in mind – never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. Or, as if often the case with referees, their entirely human inability to achieve perfection.
Either way, it’s pretty plain that referees can’t make such comments and not expect questions to be asked of their professionalism. But while Coote’s alleged comments regarding Klopp have generated a whirlwind of additional four-letter words online, it’s hard, on that one point, not to have some sympathy for him.
There are very few workplaces in which the treatment referees find themselves on the receiving end of – and especially fourth officials – would be tolerated, and there are very few walks of life in which a grown man screaming into a fellow professional’s face from a few centimetres away wouldn’t be considered abuse or bullying.
