As Mohamed Salah was being brought to ground by Aston Villa’s Leon Bailey on a breakaway chance, denying him of a clear goalscoring opportunity, referee David Coote signaled that no foul had been committed shortly before Darwin Núñez picked up the loose ball and scored.
Liverpool went on to win the game 2-0, but even fair-minded supporters of Liverpool’s foes agreed that Bailey’s foul should likely have resulted in a red card.
Coote did not even signal for advantage to be played, which could have opened the door for Bailey to be shown a yellow at the very least after play stopped–but even if Núñez missed his chance, it appeared that Bailey would have gotten off scot free.
Stunning Video Released
He ultimately avoided mass scrutiny for his on-field decisions from Saturday, but on Monday morning, a NSFW video of Coote absolutely laying into former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp and the club has spread like wildfire and further led to Coote’s suspension by the PGMOL.
Taken after his involvement in a 2020 contest between Liverpool and Burnley, Coote was asked by an unidentified individual for his thoughts on the match and the Reds manager, to which Coote responded that Liverpool were “s**te” and that Klopp is “f*****g arrogant.”
The video is quite astounding to watch, as Coote continues his rant by calling Klopp a “German c**t;” Coote’s associate concludes the tirade by saying “We hate Scousers.”
This sort of language would be expected from impassioned fans of Liverpool’s rival teams, but to hear it come from the mouth of one of the longest tenured referees in the Premier League is astounding.
A questionable history
The incident only calls Coote’s integrity as a referee further into question after looking into some of the big calls he’s made against Liverpool in the past.
While they eventually stumbled out of the title race last season, Liverpool were very much still in the thick of it during a massive clash against fellow title challengers Arsenal at Anfield on December 23rd.
Before Liverpool went on to equalize, Mohamed Salah looked to take the ball into the box against Martin Ødegaard, who lost his balance and began to fall.
As he was falling, it seemed clear upon review that rather than his hand touching the ball in a “natural” way, Ødegaard instead took a swipe at it, an offense clearly worthy of a penalty; match referee Chris Kavanagh called play on and the VAR, David Coote, decided the incident was not worthy of a pen.
A few weeks later, PGMOL head Howard Webb admitted that the decision, which ultimately came down to Coote’s VAR duties, was incorrect.
This was not the first time that Liverpool had received Webb’s regrets for blatantly incorrect decisions made against them that season.
While Coote was not involved in the match, Liverpool were dealt two massively incorrect calls in the first half of their match against Tottenham Hotspur on September 30th.
While a harsh red card to Curtis Jones was difficult to swallow, the complete botching of a wrongly disallowed Luís Diaz goal was perhaps one of the worst ever instances of VAR’s systemic incompetence; yet again, Webb admitted error, but it did little to change the 2-1 defeat for Liverpool.
Returning to the possibility of Coote’s anti-Liverpool bias, many Reds may remember a highly controversial chapter in the Merseyside Derby which saw Jordan Pickford receive no booking for his ACL-tearing tackle on Virgil van Dijk and Jordan Henderson’s match winner ruled out (which former referee Keith Hackett believes should have stood). The referee of that match? David Coote.
Bad decisions have gone against every team in the Premier League at some point; it’s an inevitable part of a sport that is officiated by human beings who make mistakes.
However, between Coote’s well-documented track record of denying the Reds calls and his foul-mouthed disparaging of the club, the PGMOL has made the correct decision to suspend him.
While his future in the Premier League is unclear, one thing is crystal clear–if Coote steps foot in Anfield again, it should produce one of the loudest chorus of boos the ground has ever seen.