It was reported today that David Coote has been sacked from his role as Premier League referee following a POGMOL investigation into the alleged off-field activities seen in videos leaked in November. The governing body’s investigation into the videos ended with the firing of Coote, who was found to have been “in serious breach” of the terms of his employment.
In the videos, a man who appears to be Coote is seen insulting former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp (while another individual has a lot to say about the city of Liverpool and the people in it in general). In a second video, an individual who looks to be Coote is seen ingesting unidentified white powder.
The fallout and memes in reaction to these videos has been quite funny, if at times verging into mean-spirited: Liverpool are a club who celebrate former striker Robbie Fowler’s famous “white line” celebration, after all.
That Coote was fired over the controversial videos — which he has reportedly accepted depict himself — is not surprising. Coote’s comments and behaviors not only bring the profession into disrepute, they also ask questions about refereeing objectivity that POGMOL would probably prefer were not asked.
Coote’s dismissal is about what any of us could respect if similar videos of ourselves were released: saying untoward things about someone whose job performance we have some power over, and consuming what appear to be illicit substances while allegedly performing our jobs.
It seemed inevitable that Coote would be sacked, and he has been.
What I’d add to the situation if you’ll bear with me for a moment (I know) is this: it should be the end of it.
You see, people don’t like referees. The game needs them, but there’s nonetheless a pervasive negative opinion that ranges from “the officials we have in the Premier League are, by and large, not good enough” to frankly unhinged beliefs of refereeing corruption against seemingly every club in existence simultaneously. (I personally think most referees are largely fine but there are often a lot of high profile examples of poor decision-making and questionable VAR interventions — though it should be said that many of my personal gripes involve time-wasting yellows, how certain approaches can arguably lead to serious injury, and general issues around how defenders are allowed to treat Mohamed Salah.)
This general negativity is, at times, a self-fulfilling prophesy: no referee can call everything in a way that you feel benefits your club, and they see things in real time from a limited perspective (and they are working within a deeply imperfect system that is often stymied by its own bureaucracy and choices in implementation). Further, the more abuse and negativity referees face at the top and lower levels, the less likely it is we will get the best and brightest as referees. If you’re getting abuse from parents every week as a young adult you might just...stop pursuing further credentials and do something else. This perspective is I think important purely because if our goal is “better officials” I’m not sure “conspiracy theories and treating referees akin to healthcare CEOs in terms of how we view their humanity” is the most effective method. Of course, this isn’t quite central to the issue at hand, which is that of officiating bias.
When we come to the issue of bias, I worry we’re all lying to ourselves a bit. I would hope that all of us strive to act ethically and equitably within our job roles despite likely disliking and perhaps hating at least one of our colleagues or those we hold some measure of professional influence over. It would be quite unforgivable if I graded a student unfairly because I didn’t like them personally, or thought they were rude to me, for example — and my job is not one that is performed on television and discussed incessantly on social media. And friends, I do not always think my co-workers are nice people.
I think we all have biases, and I think it’s a bit of a weak celebration to view Coote’s dislike of Klopp as some sort of reveal. Klopp was many things, and outright rude to officials was one of those things; if we truly believe that personal dislike is a motivating factor in decision-making it might also be prudent to wish a manager didn’t, well, yell in the faces of other grown men at work. He likely did this as a part of his wider persona as a manager — it certainly gets players on your side if you’ll actively go to war for them on the sidelines. What I mean by this is that it’s a bit specious on our part to pretend that a match official disliking Klopp, a man who wanted to be disliked by match officials, is some sort of unthinkable outcome we should pearl-clutch about simply because we also don’t think the fella in question is very good at his job. Well, former job.
Coote made a very poor decision in admitting his distaste on camera, and he was rightfully fired for having done so.
I do worry, though, that publicly celebrating his professional demise is something of a canary down a coal mine for the negative aspects of modern culture, as admittedly pompous as that sounds.
I don’t doubt that very many of us have said and done things that are unprofessional or professionally harmful in our private lives, particularly while under the influence. It’s very unlikely that any of us will have these poor decisions broadcast and celebrated online to the extent that Coote has done, and it’s truly worth considering the effect that might have on Coote the Individual (in contrast to Coote the Quite Poor Referee). In a cultural context where we see domestic abusers celebrated by certain subsets of our fanbases I think it’s worth asking deeper questions about why we might deeply relish a man’s downfall for something that falls a ways short of bigotry and abuse.
Coote was fired for his terrible decision-making. I think it would be a better use of our time as people and as a fanbase to make that firing none of our business. We have bigger things to worry about, I think.