David Coote And C*ntgate – I’ve Called This All Along

Vendetta against Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool looked obvious to those of us who are only half-blind

For years I have said, based on data and super-weird decisions that I feel David Coote hated Jürgen Klopp and/or Liverpool.

Now he has allegedly called Klopp and Liverpool some pretty nasty things.

The same appeared true of Paul Tierney, and others (such as his assistant) who had done things like, y’know, elbow a Liverpool player.

And John Brooks, who tended to wave away anything Liverpool deserved, including Tyrone Mings kung-fu kicking Cody Gakpo in the ribs, because Klopp had shouted at him.

However, my first instinct on hearing about the Coote video was that it was a deepfake; I’m actually fairly sceptical, and increasingly so about AI and videos.

And I noted on the site that it needs to be investigated.

The latest, from The Mirror, is that it’s true, albeit they say that Coote says he can’t remember recording the video as it was some time ago. Ah, okay then.

What’s true is that a certain set of referees got into rows with Klopp, and then stopped giving Liverpool decisions, if they ever started. Almost all of the refs are from Yorkshire or the northwest, and plenty clearly don’t like Liverpool or their fans very much.

While I do have sympathy for being on the end of a Klopp-bollocking (I might have shat myself, personally), I also think that it’s an incredibly well-paid job that comes with massive global exposure, and you need to be of a strong character. And to not punish people just because you don’t like them.

I spent years going over all this; the huge holes in the data, like the missing men after WWI, lost from the Census, along with all the babies they couldn’t father.

Obviously I got written off as a conspiracy theorist by some, but some conspiracies are true. I just don’t think that ‘conspiracy’ should ever be the first port of call.

I tend not to trust in most conspiracies myself, but the data was strong enough to suggest, at the very least, biases.

These included British players getting more favourable decisions (based on percentage of minutes played) in both boxes across 600+ penalties in the Premier League over almost a decade-long sample of the 2010s, than those pesky foreigners; the latter group winning fewer penalties and conceding more spot-kicks at the other end.

James Milner, who is English, is alright. But Klopp is a ‘German cunt’.

What doesn’t change is that, in three games as ref and 13 as VAR (in the Premier League), Coote has made five objectively terrible calls against Liverpool – four of them unfathomable – that have been questioned by ex-refs and even the PGMOL themselves. (And that doesn’t include some other potential red cards and iffy data.)

In reply, he has awarded Liverpool two Big Decisions as the VAR, and one against (excluding offsides).

I have no argument with the one that went against Liverpool, a disallowed Sadio Mané goal for handball at Old Trafford, before scoring (but I had forgotten something else from that game).

Similarly, the handball against Michael Keane was as clear as they come. (I can’t even remember the red card he recommended for Nélson Semedo at the end of last season.)

The four major shockers are:

1. Coote as VAR not seeing Jordan Pickford breaking Virgil van Dijk’s knee;

2. Martin Ødegaard moving the ball with his hand, again as the VAR;

3. Not giving Liverpool a clear Kop-end penalty in his first game as ref, to which, as they left the pitch, the fouled Andy Robertson said, “Fuck me. What's the point of having yous in the middle? What's the point of having you? Eh? Fuck me, honestly.”*

4. Signally no foul on Mo Salah on Saturday, again in front of the Kop, in only his second game in the league at Anfield.

5. [Edit] I’d forgotten the lack of a foul given when Divock Origi at Old Trafford in 2019, but an otherwise terrible article just brought that to my attention.

(* Which, while not exactly polite, is all part of the language of football. A big man laughs it off; a little petty man holds a burning grudge. Similarly, I wouldn’t have minded if Coote had told Klopp or Robertson to fuck off, for example; it’s how it apparently affected his officiating that is the main concern, and the snide nature of it.)

We can now assume that, if the reports are fully confirmed, Coote was applying a hatred of Liverpool FC and Klopp to his officiating on the incidents that occurred after that first game.

It calls into question the integrity of the official and of the PGMOL.

There was a gap of almost three years as Coote was deemed unsuitable for Liverpool games after the initial howlers. But he came back last season, to do more damage to the title challenge.

[EDIT: Martin Samuel has written a seriously disingenuous piece in the Times about how it’s only three incidents in five years, when he himself had previously written that Coote was off Liverpool duty after his derby disaster, and of course, that was from 2020 to 2023. He also lists only three incidents, but one of them I hadn’t even included, which was the clear foul on Divock Origi for the Man United goal in 2019. So thankfully I’m now reminded, and I’ve edited the piece and added that to the list, which now makes five howlers in just 13 games as VAR and three as a ref, which is a quite startling rate of fuck-uppery.]

On balance, the better sides win far more penalties (and Big Decisions in general), based on the law of averages and attacking balance within games.

But when Coote does Liverpool, the Big Decisions don’t fall that way. The sample size is small, at 16 games (three as ref, 13 as VAR), but it’s disconcerting enough to question, whether or not the video was real, doctored or totally invented.

He should have red-carded England international (there’s a clue there) Pickford. He should have red-carded Leon Bailey; or at least be prepared to, by seeing it as a foul; he should have given Liverpool a penalty in the tight title race at the time against Arsenal; and he should have given Liverpool a clear penalty in his very first game.

None of them were borderline calls.

[Edit: Nor was the foul on Origi in 2019, but it was slightly less egregious than the other four.

Also, I’ve half let him off for also disallowing the last-minute winner at Goodison in the Pickford/van Dijk game, where the lines he drew looked level, and it therefore should have been a Liverpool goal, and he perhaps ‘chose’ to disallow it as that’s what he felt he wanted. Maybe he had a better image, of course; but at the time, in 2020, there was no proper margin of error in the system.]

Ex-refs had already said, before news of the viral video, that it’s concerning that Coote did not see the hauling down of Salah as a foul, as the most blatant red card decision you’ll see since Jeremy Doku and “they both came in high”. At least Coote was not responsible for that.

Concerning, indeed.

As with the Luis Díaz horror-show from the VAR last season, and the weird red cards shown to Liverpool in that game (and previous games there, but not to Harry Kane for the worst foul in any of the games), it’s hard to trust people who give several different excuses as to why a mistake was made, rather than just owning it.

Howard Webb appears to be making efforts towards transparency, but it’s still only suitable transparency, with plausible deniability.

“They both came in high” is just not what happened; like saying Patrick Battiston just ran into Harald Schumacher. A coming together, etc.

To me, what I’ve done for over half a decade now is more like pointing out the corrupt cops via who they arrest and who they let go.

Most police are (probably) good people doing a difficult job that societies need (as is agreed even in those societies treated badly by the police), as are most officials. But pettiness and biases play a part. Some go rogue.

Refereeing, like policing, probably attracts an overly officious type who has some issues around power and control.

Indeed, refs are essentially trained to not give Liverpool decisions at Anfield, as noted recently in general terms by Peter Walton, another startling midwit. (In fairness, if you have an IQ over 100 you probably don’t want to be a referee.)

[Edit: Walton has now written a piece in the Times calling Coote “captain sensible” and saying that this is “out of character”. Close ranks? Check. Maybe Walton could have watched Coote’s displays involving Liverpool? Because those comments seem in keeping with Coote’s actions.]

They are trained, he said, to resist the big atmosphere; and I’ve said for years that refs feel that they have to show their strength by denying Liverpool clear decisions at Anfield, which is why Manchester United and Manchester City were twice as likely to get a home penalty during the Klopp years.

There’s no myth about the atmosphere at the Etihad, after all.

Anfield and the Kop end has this reputation, just as the meme of #LiVARpool actually stopped VARs giving Liverpool subjective decisions. That’s how these feedback loops work.

Referees were going into games at Anfield with such paranoia that when Andy Robertson approached the linesman the linesman elbowed him in the face!

Think about that!

The linesman was lucky that Liverpool didn’t take it further; but the officials still had it in for Liverpool, it seems. As I’ve always said, I get that they didn’t like Klopp, but it should not affect the quality and fairness of their work, for the integrity of the league as a whole, aside from just for Liverpool.

Every week, Mike Dean inadvertently talks about all the times he showed some kind of bias, as well as his admitting to mate’s rates when a VAR in not stepping in to correct his pal Tony (Anthony Taylor); and then being told to backtrack and it wasn’t what he said, when we heard and saw him say it live on TV.

Mark Clattenburg recently said to former yard-dog midfielder Michael Brown on Five Live that he used to give him leeway when he asked for some.

Dean, who also seems a bit of a midwit, said on Sky this weekend that the first bad foul was always considered ‘free’, and that you don’t want to book anyone early as it causes you problems (in other words, go fuck someone over early, and all is okay).

None of them see this as problematic.

Clattenburg also noted this season on TNT that the ref needed to give a foul ASAP to AC Milan and against Liverpool, despite no foul having occurred yet, in order to quieten the crowd. It’s bonkers.

In other words, invent a foul, as the natives are restless. But we know officials invent stuff, such as when they realise that a corner has been incorrectly given, they then find a phantom infringement.

As I said after Saturday, when Coote immediately penalised Liverpool’s first inswinging corner, I felt he was setting the tone. He had no issue with any of the crowding on Villa’s dangerous inswingers. Again, it’s a tell.

I’ve shown games where Liverpool, in 2024, have had ten free-kicks given against before even getting one for; including when being physically bullied and kicked at Everton and the ref allowing it – running the game, essentially.

Or the mad Mo Salah data, where he got a free-kick roughly every second game, even at his dribbling peak.

I’ve even shown the reverse bias (or bend-over-backwards bias, as I call it) of Scouse refs in Manchester and Manc refs on Merseyside, as they can be proven via the data to show extra generosity compared to other refs, and also compared to when they do other teams.

So I even call out biases that help Liverpool; it’s just not that frequent.

I’ve never said it’s some grand conspiracy, but I do worry about the PGMOL and the choice of refs for Liverpool games (less so this season until this past weekend), and also the pool they had, which seemed to centre around the northwest and Yorkshire.

I worry about their shared gossips and hatreds.

I do think the PGMOL is less-bad than a few years ago, but who wasn’t alarmed when Sky, aware of perhaps the worst officiating error in modern times, chose to ignore it and cut to an ad break? There’s something very wrong with the way the sport is presented, and bad officiating explained away.

You didn’t see the Luis Díaz onside goal, right? Good process, right? In sporting terms it was like a news broadcast having the Zapruder film and saying “nah, there’s nothing here”.

Again, all this reminds me of the police in the bad old days, before many forces became more professional; the self-investigations, and the post-hoc rationalisations, that were par for the course in the 1970s and ‘80s.

(There will always be rogue and psychopathic cops because there will always be rogue and psychopathic people, who, by the nature of their charm, are hard to spot. And being in positions of power is quite handy to meet their desires.)

So, I was about to share some shocking new VAR data this week, that takes this all further as to subjective decision-making, and the PGMOL when it comes to Liverpool.

Coote represents a small chunk of the anomalies in the data, as noted. But he’s just part of an overall pattern that I’ll be sharing. Suddenly, my fears about anti-Liverpool attitudes from refs seem a little more justified.

(Some of it may still be paranoia on my part.)

People also assume that refs can only be biased to the club they support, but it’s much more complicated than that.

Again, you may not support Manchester United, but if you live in Greater Manchester, presumably you meet United fans everywhere you go. That can’t be easy. What if they piss in your pint? Spray snot (or worse) in your coffee?

But there are also the managers they must hate, the players they loathe. There are the managers they are pally with, and giggle with like little schoolgirls, and the players who they love to share the pitch with, as it makes them feel important.

There are the weirder biases: for example, South Yorkshire people of a certain age who still blame Liverpool fans for Hillsborough, and hate Scousers. (I’ve met them! Including from the police.) If you’re raised with lies you believe those lies; and if you were police at the time, you believe your covering-up colleagues.

Martin Atkinson, as I’ve said many times, had a normal Big Decision rate for Liverpool games (for and against) for years, until Steven Gerrard slammed him in his autobiography, at the same time that Klopp took charge, and Atkinson just stopped seeing anything at all in Liverpool games; he almost went on strike.

While it could have been coincidental, there were clear incidents he ignored, to back up the theory.

Data cannot tell you everything, but patterns and outlier events need investigating.

Was I right to be highly suspicious of Coote?

Again, British and especially English players get treated better, on average. As do the managers; Liverpool always got far more decisions when the manager was either British and/or the team was full of homegrown players.

(Peter Walton admitted that some foreign players were discussed and considered cheats, including Luis Suarez – and fair enough, Suarez was mental – but I never saw an acknowledgement about English players doing the same; has anyone watched Harry Kane?)

In contrast, I’ve also praised a ref like Taylor in recent years, apart from when Klopp had just had the bust-up with the overly officious John Brooks, and Taylor reffed like a lunatic (I think it was against Brentford), booking van Dijk for the first foul of the game within four minutes, and just penalising Liverpool all game, including booking Alisson for time-wasting pretty much as soon as he put the ball down for a goal-kick, if memory serves.

I fully expect the PGMOL members to band behind one another, just as they may back up each other’s mistakes as the VAR. And for hierarchies to exist, where, in a move overturned in aviation because it kept leading to crashes, the junior seems too deferential to the senior, and will not overturn a mistake. They probably see themselves as under attack, and I imagine that it’s therefore natural to band together.

But that also needs to be realised, and things put in place to stop it becoming a problem.

Otherwise, Taylor’s data doing Liverpool games seems normal, even if he does give less than expected to the Reds away from Anfield (including not sending off Vincent Kompany), and more than expected at Anfield (unlike those refs who won’t or didn’t give anything at Anfield, as a badge of honour, which is most of them post-2015).

Even the dreaded Paul Tierney finally gave Liverpool some decisions, albeit all were absolutely stonewall. It’s usually the way a ref decides on the more borderline calls that shows a pattern.

Can I give this? Do I want to give this?

As a VAR, in over 20 games, I think his record is four Big Decisions against Liverpool, none for; including not overturning the farcical red card for Alexis Mac Allister last season. He has given three decisions, as the VAR, to Manchester clubs against Liverpool, two of which were highly suspect. Again, he and Klopp famously exchanged heated words, and he clearly bore a grudge.

Meanwhile, Stuart Attwell is highly avoidant in general, not really getting involved; maybe stung by being the young ref who gave a goal when the ball went behind, several yards wide of the posts, for a corner.

Other refs want to be the centre of attention, and are probably the types who’ll end up on TV.

In the past, a ref might bow to the stadium; now they may think of social media, and the global live audience, and the rage at something like Liverpool getting a Big Decision, which will be unpopular with 95% of the football population.

I’ve praised Tony Harrington, who has just seemed to do Liverpool games normally at Anfield. No Big Decisions to Liverpool, but also reffing like a man who is just calling what he sees. I’m not seeking favourable refs, just not actively unfavourable ones.

I quite like Craig Pawson, who is fairly neutral for Liverpool. Michael Oliver used to give Liverpool Big Decisions, until he stopped. Simon Hooper is an absolute oaf. But perhaps the new breed will be better, as long as they’re not told to not bow to the Kop’s howls, when the Kop’s howls might be justified.

And of course, it never helps when three of the better refs cannot do Liverpool games.

We’ve also seen refs going to the oil states that own clubs (including Michael Oliver to Saudi when they own the club he loves), to earn several thousand pounds to referee a single game.

That was insane in terms of integrity, even if nothing underhand occurred. Imagine if FSG were paying refs to go over to Boston, and paying them £3k.

I think the PGMOL, who I gather are not a fan of my work, may have wised up to that one and nipped it in the bud.

Whatever happens, David Coote will hopefully never referee another Liverpool game.

So It’s True?

As reported in The Mirror as I was about to hit publish, Coote is apparently admitting to everything.

He is asked: "What did you think of the Liverpool game earlier?" Coote responds: "Liverpool were s***." He is then asked: "What do you think of Jurgen Klopp?" To which Coote replied: "C***. Absolute c***.

"Aside from having a right pop at me when I refereed them against Burnley in lockdown, he accused me of lying then had a right f****** pop at me."

Coote is understood to have accepted the viral video in which he appears is genuine. However, it is believed he does not recall the content of the discussion, recorded several years ago.

Referring to a second match in which he was acting as fourth official, he continued: "I've got no interest in speaking to someone who's f****** arrogant. So I do my best not to speak to him. James Milner's alright.

"You can see me there [in a picture on his phone] with a mask on. Got to careful right, we're social distancing, we're two metres apart. But my God, German c***. F*** me."

Coote then made a plea to whoever was being sent the video to not share it. He added: "Just to be clear, that f****** last video can't go anywhere. Seriously."

Well, that went well.

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