The Athletic exclusively reported on Wednesday, citing Nottinghamshire police, that former Premier League referee David Coote, who was sacked last year for racially abusing former Liverpool lengendary head coach Jürgen Klopp and suspected of heroin use during the 2024 European Championship, may face jail for possession of child pornography.

According to reports, Coote was summoned to Nottingham Crown Court for his third trial on charges of possessing child pornography. Dressed in a blue suit and tie, he remained silent during multiple rounds of questioning by prosecutors until prosecutors demanded a guilty plea.

Due to the severity of the case and the involvement of a prominent figure in the UK, the court has imposed a media ban, prohibiting journalists from covering the case in excessive detail to avoid posing a threat to the public safety.

Furthermore, due to Coote's ongoing troubles, prosecutors are not ruling out registering him as a sex offender and racial abuser with a criminal record at his sentencing hearing on December 11th, potentially requiring him to undergo psychiatric treatment.

Prosecutors are also considering requesting a lifetime ban from FIFA for him to be excluded from all football-related activities to prevent future child abuse.

Coote will be released on bail until his sentencing, but he is prohibited from contacting any child under the age of 18 and these children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

After the preliminary hearing, the presiding judge, Nirmal Shant, warned Coote in an interview with The Athletic: "Whether this means he faces jail time depends on the evidence presented to the court. But don't assume this means a non-custodial sentence; that's not the case."

Furthermore, reporters sought responses from acquaintances of Coote after the report's release. They all said that while they knew he was involved in a lot of negative news, they had never imagined he could be so treacherous. Many fans also believed that Coote's actions had completely damaged the image of British football.

How it happened

Ben Payne, the prosecutor in charge of the case, told The Athletic last month that police had received a tip from a privately-owned telecommunications company that had discovered a "disgusting" number of obscene and indecent messages between two mobile phones.

After investigation, police discovered that the messages were linked to Coote and a minor.

During the subsequent investigation, police searched Coote's home and discovered multiple child pornography contents on his computer hard drive. One of the victims was 15 years old.

Based on the evidence they seized, police determined the child pornography to be Category A, the most severe level of indecency.

Police also discovered that Coote had been engaging in these disgusting habits since January 2020.

In December of last year, prosecutors formally charged Coote and held two preliminary hearings. However, unlike this time, Coote pleaded not guilty in both hearings.

About David Coote

Coote, 43, was born on July 11, 1982 in Nottingham, England. He is 1.80 meters tall and has been a loyal fan of the EFL League Two club Notts County since he was a child. Therefore, he was not allowed to referee in Nottingham Forest's games.

Coote started to referee in the Nottinghamshire non-leagues at the age of 16, and later obtained the refereeing qualifications for the EFL Championship, EFL League One and EFL League Two in 2010.

In April 2018, Coote served as a referee in the Premier League for the first time, and soon after, he was officially awarded the Select One refereeing qualification by the English Football Association.

In the summer of 2020, Coote obtained the refereeing qualification certification from FIFA again.

However, there has always been a huge controversy about Coote's character.

In fact, since a long time ago, the accusation that Coote was suspected of deliberately targeting Liverpool has been circulating among fans, and later it was confirmed by a short video that broke out not long ago.

In early November 2024, a short video of Coote swearing and smearing former Liverpool legendary head coach Jürgen Klopp went viral on X (Twitter).

The video was allegedly shot in 2020 when the world was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the video, Coote, accompanied by a man, sat on the sofa and swore at Klopp, accusing that the Reds head coach was an arrogant person, and that he has lost his temper with him, and so on.

The most ironic thing is that in the video, Coote shamelessly asked others not to leak the video.

After that, Liverpool fans also found proof that Coote was the VAR assistant referee in the following two games when the Reds played against Manchester United at Old Trafford in 2019, Victor Lindelof deliberately knocked down Divock Origi, causing the Reds to lose the ball; Andy Robertson was maliciously tackled in the opponent's penalty area when the Reds played against Burnley, but he was not awarded a penalty.

In addition, fans also found that when Virgil van Dijk was maliciously tackled by the latter's goalkeeper Jordan Pickford with a WWE wrestler-style "scissor kick" in the game against Everton, which caused the former to be ruled out for the season, Coote deliberately monitored whether Liverpool had caught offside, but turned a blind eye to Pickford's foul, and in the end he eventually escaped from without being given a red card and sent off.

Likewise, Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard deliberately committed a handball but was ignored. The outrageous refereeing decisions injustice once again amplified the possibility that Coote premeditatedly targeted the Premier League leader.

To make matters worse, a week later, The Sun revealed that an anonymous person received a 7-second short video online. In the video, a man who looks like Coote rolled a banknote into a tube and snorted on a white powdery object suspected to be heroin on the guest table, and made a groaning sound as if he was enjoying the process.

Not long after, Coote was exposed to have threatened to maliciously targeted Leeds United's former North Macedonian international Ezgjan Alioski before a EFL Championship match between Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion in 2019. Although he denied the allegations at the time, Coote's words and actions still caused more and more people to be disgusted.

Due to the seriousness of the incident, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) has officially announced the dismissal of Coote in December 2024, and UEFA has. The referee's suspension and investigation report have also been submitted to the FIFA Disciplinary and Ethics Committee for the world's highest football regulatory body to decide whether to strip Coote of his professional refereeing qualifications.

the Professional Referees League (PGMOL) of the United Kingdom officially announced the dismissal of Coote in December 2024, and UEFA also announced at the same time that his suspension order for investigation would be upgraded to the whole of Europe until 2026.

In January this year, Coote admitted in an interview with The Mirror that he was addicted to drugs, but he has actively cooperated with drug rehabilitation, publicly came out as a gay, and cried that he made these heinous mistakes due to too much pressure. However, his explanation was not only not sympathized and forgiven, but instead attracted more people to criticize his disgusting behaviour of constantly using one lie to cover up another lie.