David Coote Controversy
19/11/2024 15:08:55
Controversy has greeted the Premier League during the international break with a video emerging of Premier League referee David Coote being critical of Liverpool and former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, using derogatory language about Klopp and talking about his dislike of the former Premier League winning manager. He refers to a match between Liverpool and Burnley from lockdown on the 11th July 2020. In this game, Klopp was very critical of Coote for not awarding a penalty to Liverpool and multiple fouls not being given.
This has brought about questions of Coote’s integrity as a referee with many questioning if he had an agenda against Liverpool since then because of his perceived dislike of Jurgen Klopp. Stats have emerged of Liverpool having a 66.7% win record on games where Coote has refereed whereas title rivals in this time period Manchester City have a win record of 100% with Coote as a referee. Coote has been suspended by the PGMOL pending a full investigation.
Coote’s Controversial Decisions vs Liverpool
Coote was on VAR on the day that Everton’s Jordan Pickford inflicted a horror tackle on Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk in the penalty box on October 17th 2020. The incident saw Van Dijk undergo surgery to fix his ruptured ACL and miss the rest of the season. Not only were Liverpool denied a penalty, but Pickford avoided any type of punishment as the game finished in a 2-2 draw. On-field ref Michael Oliver later admitted that he should have shown Pickford a straight red and the PGMOL held a mid-season review. However fans were critical of Coote, who was on VAR, as he denied the penalty on the basis that Van Dijk was in an offside position, meaning he still could have shown the red card for violent conduct.
Coote was the VAR official when Martin Odegaard handled the ball inside David Raya's penalty box last December. Mohamed Salah had attempted to flick the ball round Odegaard when the ball hit the Arsenal captain's arm as he was falling.Referee Chris Kavanagh waved on and Coote confirmed his decision not to give a penalty after a VAR review. Chief Refereeing Officer for the PGMOL Howard Webb later said a penalty should have been rewarded. Liverpool fans have gone as far back as 2019 to find an incident involving Coote, where he was once again on VAR duty.
The incident came in a meeting between Manchester United and Liverpool. Divock Origi was perceived to be fouled in the leadup to Manchester United’s opening goal but referee Martin Atkinson and VAR Coote, deemed it not to be a foul. The game ended 1-1 and stopped Liverpool’s 100% start to that season. It is hard to say that a particular referee would have an agenda against a whole club, but his integrity is currently being questioned.
Referees- How have we got to this point?
This controversy sums up where we have got to this point in time with referees. Referees have become household names just like the footballers who are playing. At the end of the day these are normal people whose job it is to just referee the game but now they are always at the centre of it. Back in the 1970’s nobody knew who the referees were, they were simply just announced over the speakers before the game.
"However fans were critical of Coote, who was on VAR, as he denied the penalty on the basis that Van Dijk was in an offside position, meaning he still could have shown the red card for violent conduct."
The introduction of more televised games in the 80’s and Sky Sports in the 90’s began what we have now. Referees like Clive Thomas and David Ellering began to be known for their controversies. Everything a referee does now is examined in-depth because we know who these officials are. Fans go back and look at other games to confirm their points about a referee having an agenda against their team, like Liverpool fans have done with Coote. VAR has added to it as well. Not only do we know who the referee is, we know who the VAR and assistant VAR are.
It remains to be seen what happens to David Coote, especially after the latest video of him that has been realised where he is deemed to be snorting a white powder. There is a lot of problems with officialting in the Premier League at the moment, their integrity will now be questioned even more than it already is. At the end of the day, a referee is there to officiate, why do we know him/her?
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✒️ Jack Guing – Football and GAA Sports Expert
Jack Guing has a strong knowledge of the sport of GAA through the lens of performance analysis with multiple GAA teams. He holds a master's degree in sports performance. He has a huge love of all things sports, especially golf, soccer and GAA. He uses statistics and performance analysis in order to predict the outcome of matches and events.
