The BBC reported on Wednesday that former referee David Coote who was fired by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) last year for racially abusing former Liverpool legendary head coach Jürgen Klopp, has been formally charged by the English Football Association.

According to reports, the English Football Association decided to charge Coote on behalf of the British Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

The charges stated that Coote violated the English Football Association's E3.1 regulations, showing inappropriate behaviour/using vulgar and abusive language to defame others, and his repeated mention of Klopp's nationality in the problematic video has led to very serious racial discrimination.

However, in response to the previous accusation that Coote had deliberately decided to issue a yellow card to former Leeds United player Ezgijan Alioski before the game due to suspected involvement in illegal gambling activities, the English Football Association said that the authorities have launched a full investigation into the accusation, but have made a decision not to prosecute.

As for the allegation that he was suspected of taking heroin during the 2024 European Championship, they will be inconvenient to respond because it has been transferred to the UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Committee for full investigation.

At the same time, since the case has officially entered the judicial process, the authorities will not make any further response to the case before the final verdict is issued, and the court will also reserve the right to pursue media, reporters and netizens who spread false opinions.

About David Coote

David Coote, 42, 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.