Referees’ chief believes David Coote still ‘deserves’ role in English football

David Coote “deserves” to have a continued role in English football, the chair of the Referees’ Association has said.

Coote’s contract as an elite ­referee with Professional Game Match ­Officials Limited (PGMOL) was ­terminated last month after a video emerged showing him ­making ­derogatory comments about ­Liverpool and their former manager Jürgen Klopp. A separate video also showed Coote taking cocaine.

In an interview with the Sun, released on Monday evening, Coote came out as gay and said his struggle to hide his sexuality had contributed to his making bad choices, such as the video about Liverpool and his use of drugs.

Coote remains one of the most highly regarded video assistant ­referees in Europe, and is keen when the time is right to have a role related to officiating, if not an on-field one. Paul Field, the chair of the RA, which looks after the welfare of referees at all levels, has seen the work Coote has done with young officials and hopes that experience is not lost to the English game.

“He deserves to have a role,” Field said. “The work he does with young people is exemplary. He’s an ­unbelievable tutor. He puts so much time and effort into the ­up-and-coming grassroots officials. He has a magnificent role to offer in terms of coaching, mentoring and support.

“I’d love for him to stay in the UK. I’d love him to be part of the ­English Football Association, ­training, ­mentoring, out of the public light to look after himself. He has so much to offer. I don’t think he knows how much respect he has from other ­referees for the work he has done.”

Sources close to Coote say he is keeping an open mind about what he may look to do next. He is ­understood to remain confident that a ­Football Association investigation into ­messages exchanged with a Leeds fan concerning showing a yellow card to one of their players in 2019 will clear him.

Coote, 42, also told the Sun about the mental strain created by the abuse he faced, which included death threats aimed at him and his mother. Those comments came after another ­referee, Michael Oliver, was subjected to threats and abuse after showing a red card to Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly at Wolves on Saturday.

Field laid the blame primarily at former player pundits for sparking social media “pile-ons” with their comments, and said he was minded to make a complaint to broadcasting regulator Ofcom. “These pundits, ex-professionals, who pile on are the source of the problem,” he said. “I think the broadcasters have a duty of care to people. Ofcom ought to be writing to some of these media companies and radio companies, just to remind them of their own obligations.”

skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Football Daily Free daily newsletter Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion

Field said he could understand why Coote had not gone public about his sexuality while he was ­refereeing: “Whatever angle ­supporters can have a go at, they’ll have a go at. The ­referee abuse we have is ­horrendous and any excuse for any of these morons to have a go at us, they will use that excuse.”

The former player Zander Murray, who came out as gay in 2022, said on Tuesday he had been contacted by Coote at the time to offer his support. Murray told TalkSport: “He resonated with my story back then and he was really, really struggling with his own sexuality. Obviously fast forward to now, what he’s done is obviously a huge error and huge mistake and he’s been punished for that. I’m not in regular contact with him. All I can vouch for is he’s definitely not lying in regards to struggling with this for a long time.”

Click here to read article