UEFA bans Coote for 16 months from European refereeing after getting sacked by PGMOL last year on back of damaging videos.
UEFA bans Coote for a period of 16 months having deemed to have brought football into disrepute.
Following the release of a video purporting to show Coote making disparaging remarks against Liverpool and its former manager Jürgen Klopp, his contract as an elite referee with Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) was terminated in December. Coote was also shown doing cocaine in another video. The 42-year-old was an official at the 2024 European Championship when the latter event occurred.
According to PGMOL, the official’s actions rendered his job “untenable” and constituted a major breach of his employment contract. The control, ethics, and disciplinary body of European football met last week and decided that Coote had dragged football, and Uefa in particular, into disrepute by breaking the fundamentals of proper behaviour.
A statement said: “Mr David Coote Incidents and sanction: General principles of conduct, Art. 11(1) DR, Violating the basic rules of decent conduct, Art. 11(2)(b) DR, Bringing the sport of football, and Uefa in particular, into disrepute, Art. 11(2)(d) DR, Ban from exercising any Uefa refereeing activity until 30 June 2026.”
In a January interview with the Sun, Coote came out as gay and said that his inability to conceal his sexual orientation had led to poor decisions, including the Liverpool video and his drug usage.
“I felt a deep sense of shame during my teenage years in particular. I didn’t come out to my parents until I was 21. I didn’t come out to my friends until I was 25,” he said. “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.
“I am truly sorry for any offence caused by my actions and for the negative spotlight it put on the game that I love. I hope people will understand that they were private moments taken during very low times in my life. They do not reflect who I am today or what I think.”