Disgraced referee David Coote has been banned from officiating in any UEFA game until the end of June 2026 after being filmed snorting cocaine during Euro 2024.
Coote was sacked by the Premier League’s refereeing body PGMOL in December following the release of a video in which he used derogatory language to describe Liverpool and their former boss Jurgen Klopp.
A second video then showed Coote snorting a white powder through a bank note which he later admitted was the drug.
The act was alleged to have taken place at a UEFA hotel, a day after Coote was on VAR duty for the quarter-final between France and Portugal.
A UEFA disciplinary release today confirmed his sanction.
It said he had “violated the basic rules of decent conduct’ and ‘brought the sport of football, and UEFA in particular, into disrepute’ and banned him for 16 months.
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Coote blames stress of hiding sexuality
Coote later explained his actions had been caused by the stress of concealing his homosexuality.
EXCLUSIVE Referee David Coote opens up on his sexuality
Watch the full interview here: https://t.co/zRryEInsXz pic.twitter.com/OXAJJfzc9x
— The Sun (@TheSun) January 28, 2025
He told The Sun, the paper that had earlier exposed him: “He said: “My sexuality isn’t the only reason that led me to be in that position. But I’m not telling an authentic story if I don’t say that I’m gay and that I’ve had real struggles with hiding that.
“I hid my emotions as a young ref and I hid my sexuality as well – a good quality as a referee but a terrible quality as a human being. And that’s led me to a whole course of behaviours.”
On the video that saw him calling Klopp a c***, he said: “I recognise that they [his remarks] fell well short of standards that are expected of a top-level referee and I deeply regret saying what I said. The comments are not reflective of my views of any of the individuals concerned or my wider views in general.”
Coote received backing of former colleague
Mark Halsey, who retired from refereeing in 2013 after a 14-year Premier League career, said Coote’s honesty should be recognised.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live last month: “Coming out and taking full responsibility for his actions, he’s not making excuses, he’s taking full responsibility.
“He’s a human being, we all make mistakes in life. Everybody makes mistakes in life and they deserve a second chance and nobody should go through what David is going through. I really, really feel for him. When the referees get together, we’ve all said things about players or managers.”
Coote has received threats online and Halsey said he could sympathise after also suffering at the hands of trolls during his career.
“He’s made some mistakes and he doesn’t deserve the death threats,” he added. “I’ve had death threats before against my family, my wife who was battling leukemia. They wanted to see us dead with the cancer coming back. Some of the things they wanted to do to my young daughter was just horrendous.”
‘We all knew about David’s sexuality’
Asked what the reaction would have been had Coote come out as gay while he was still refereeing, Halsey said: “It would have been very tough. It shouldn’t be like this. We all knew [fellow referees] about David’s sexuality. That didn’t bother us. He was a human being, he was a nice person, so what about his sexuality. So what? It’s all about sharing love and understanding people and what they are going through.
“Society today, it stinks and it’s good that David has got his friends and family to show him the love and the companionship that he needs to get him through this. I hope that the PGMOL are helping him through this.”
