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Hello. A Premier League referee’s career is on the line. We have the details.
Plus: How Spanish football responded to deadly floods, and the Inter Miami fall-out.
Referee storm: Coote suspended after alleged remarks about ex-Liverpool manager Klopp
(Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
Prior to yesterday, David Coote would not have registered as the Premier League’s most famous or recognisable match official. He’s familiar, of course, and he’s been around the top flight as a referee since 2018, but others like Michael Oliver are more likely to be noticed in the street.
The emergence of two videos in the past 24 hours, however, will make Coote headline news for some time to come. In them, he is seen referring to Liverpool as “s***” and calling former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp “f***ing arrogant” and a “German c***”.
These are allegations at present and The Athletic is yet to verify the footage, although a source said Coote has not denied being in it. The PGMOL, the body that manages referees in English football, is investigating and wasted no time in suspending Coote with immediate effect. Coote will stand down from officiating until its probe is complete.
Coincidentally or not, the videos appeared a day after Coote had taken charge of Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa at Anfield. Over the years, he’s been involved in some of their matches as referee or an assistant, most of them during Klopp’s long spell with Liverpool. Klopp quit at the end of last season, so it was Arne Slot in the home dugout on Sunday.
The issue the PGMOL will have to address is that if these videos are real, how could Coote possibly referee Liverpool again? Or indeed, remain as a top-level referee at all?
‘He accused me of lying’
The origin of the recordings — both of which appear to have been shot at the same time in the same location — is unclear. Coote appears to be in somebody’s home, with people who are unidentified. There are no details about when precisely the footage was shot.
Coote and Liverpool have had their run-ins, including his part in Klopp’s side being denied a penalty in a 1-1 draw with Arsenal last season. In the video, Coote references a Liverpool fixture in which he and Klopp clashed on the sidelines. It relates to the period when the Premier League was subject to Covid-19 restrictions, so sometime after the virus shut English football down in early 2020.
“He accused me of lying and then just had a right f***ing pop at me,” Coote says. “I’ve got no interest in speaking to someone who’s f***ing arrogant. I do my best not to speak to him.”
Coote then shows a photo on his mobile phone of him beside Klopp and former Liverpool midfielder James Milner. “You can see me there with mask on (sic),” Coote says. “Social distancing — 10 metres apart. But my God, German c***, f*** me.”
What now?
Coote has made no comment about the videos and, so far, nor have Liverpool or Klopp. A PGMOL statement read: “David Coote has been suspended with immediate effect pending a full investigation. PGMOL will be making no further comment until that process is complete.”
How long the investigation takes remains to be seen. The PGMOL’s appointments for the next round of Premier League matches — over the weekend of November 23 and 24 — is still to be published, but it is safe to assume that before his suspension, Coote would have been involved in one of them.
The professionalism and impartiality of referees is under scrutiny like never before, intensified further by the perceived shortcomings of the Premier League’s Video Assistant Referee system (VAR). Officials in England are required to declare if they support a particular team to avoid a conflict of interests.
This is also the era of mistrust, a time when, from politics to sport and everything in between, integrity matters and people are on the hunt for bias and conspiracy. The PGMOL has its hands full here — and probably only one way of washing them.
News round-up
(Franklin Jacome/Getty Images)
Tragedy in Spain
Two weeks ago, vicious storms caused untold destruction in Spain. Valencia and the area around it is accustomed to autumn rain, but this was different. At least 223 people died in flash flooding.
Amid the tragedy, football barely mattered, but the sport has not been unaffected. Valencia’s La Liga schedule has been on hold ever since. Their Mestalla stadium is being used to store equipment for the emergency response. Numerous clubs and prominent figures in the game have pitched in to help, as Dermot Corrigan writes here.
Ferran Torres, the Barcelona forward, missed a clash with Espanyol on November 3 to assist with the clean-up. Osasuna coach Vicente Moreno did likewise with a Copa del Rey fixture. Torres was in Valencia’s academy with one of the people killed in the floods, 28-year-old Jose Castillejo. An awful lot of people have been touched by the disaster.
Spanish football can get a bad press, a lot of it entirely deserved, but in response to the floods, it’s done itself proud.
Reality check? MLS minus Messi: A first glimpse of life without him after Miami exit
There’s no pretending that Lionel Messi hasn’t been good for MLS. He’s put fresh eyes on the competition and drawn new fans towards it. The Inter Miami shirts I see on the streets of England aren’t being sold by Jordi Alba or anybody else.
Attendances are up. So are revenue, retail and TV numbers. You’d rightly say MLS is booming. But there’s a definite sense of deflation around Miami’s shock exit from the MLS Cup play-offs over the weekend. You can tell the league wanted Messi to go further. Broadcaster Apple must have, too. He really is the golden goose.
TAFC said yesterday that while MLS can cash-in on Messi short-term, its wider strategy has to revolve around more than one star name. The Athletic’s Paul Tenorio is making that same point today and asking whether a credible post-Messi strategy exists.
As Paul states, Miami’s early exit is a useful reality check. Bringing football’s greatest player to the U.S. was a smart move, but no Messi in the play-offs gives pause for thought about what MLS can and should do when it is no longer able to leverage him.
Show Viz
Something quirky is occurring in the Premier League. With a few exceptions, top clubs are struggling to match the points they accrued after 11 games of last season — many by quite a distance.
Manchester City are four points worse off than they were at this stage of 2023-24. Arsenal are five points in arrears and Tottenham Hotspur a massive 10, although I think we all accept that Spurs’ electric start under Ange Postecoglou 12 months ago was a bit of a false dawn.
Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Manchester United are in the same boat. Only Liverpool and Chelsea have bucked the trend to any great extent. Our writers are trying to explain why and their analysis is a litany of injury concerns, tactical pressures and low energy.
There’s another potential explanation, too: that the Premier League from top to bottom is getting more competitive. If that’s the case, it’s no bad thing — unless a fifth straight title for City is your idea of a contest.
Around The Athletic FC
- You’re an under-21 at West Ham United. You turn up for a training-ground friendly and off the opposition bus steps Messi, with Javier Mascherano, Angel Di Maria and Sergio Aguero behind him. Sounds like a dream. It wasn’t.
- A disallowed Robert Lewandowski goal on Sunday caused a stir in Spain. Or in Barcelona, at any rate. The offside graphics look definitive enough, but Barca aren’t having it.
- Real Madrid badly need defenders. Club legend Sergio Ramos is on the market as a free agent after talk of an MLS move came to nothing. Mario Cortegana is warning Real: he’s 38 and hasn’t kicked a ball in months. Don’t do it.
- Andy Mitten’s Manchester United fetish took him to five games in just 48 hours. That’s a hefty mileage claim.
- With Amorim descending on the Premier League, it’s the right time to swot up on the machinations of three at the back. The Athletic FC Tactics podcast is all over the system.
- Most clicked in yesterday’s TAFC: Jose Mourinho. Hated, adored, never ignored.
And finally…
Disgruntlement in Argentina, where influencer Spreen (yes, him) made his professional debut for top-flight club Deportivo Riestra against Velez Sarsfield, only to be substituted after less than a minute having failed to touch the ball.
Spreen (real name Ivan Buhajeruk) has zero experience as a pro player, because he isn’t one. What he does have is a shed load of social media followers, the driving factor behind yesterday’s marketing stunt.
“Shameful” and “a disgrace” are two of the more printable reactions to his cameo, reported by Reuters. I doubt he’ll be lining up again, although in fairness, here we are writing about him, so mission accomplished.
Oh, for the record, the match finished 1-1.
(Top photo: Phil Noble/Pool via Getty Images)
