Liverpool and Klopp insult will cost referee his job but issue of match official abuse in sport is real

Rassie Erasmus (Head Coach) of South Africa during the South Africa men's national rugby captain's run at Merchiston on November 09, 2024 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images)

By Craig Ray

12 Nov 2024

English Premier League referee David Coote has been shown on video calling former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp a c***. It is probably the end of his career but also raises the question of the abuse officials suffer.

English referee David Coote is under investigation for expletive-filled comments about former Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp that will almost signal the end of his professional refereeing career. In England at least.

He simply cannot officiate matches involving Liverpool or games that might impact Liverpool in the future, after his outburst. That leaves very little scope for his career to continue in the Premier League.

In the video, Coote makes comments to the camera after he is asked what he thinks of Klopp and Liverpool.

See video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQtnWER3TEU

“Aside from having a right pop at me when I was reffing against Burnley in lockdown, he accused me of lying and then just had a right f***ing pop at me. I’ve got no interest in speaking to somebody as f***ing arrogant. I do my best not to speak to him, my God . . . German c****. F*** me.” Coote says in the video.

Later Coote asks his “friend” not to share the video. Well, that ended badly. It was professional suicide if it got out, and inevitably it did.

That his career in England is in tatters is a given. Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL), the organisation that oversees Premier League referees, have started an investigation.

“David Coote has been suspended with immediate effect, pending a full investigation. PGMOL will be making no further comment until that process is complete,” a statement from PGMOL read.

Despite the stupid comments, made in a private setting, there is a larger story here, which is the abuse of match officials.

Soccer is particularly culpable as hardly a game goes by, at any level, where the referee or their assistants are not verbally abused by players during the match.

At the highest level the abuse is massively public. The power dynamic between a relatively lowly paid official and millionaire, highly famous athletes and managers, further muddies the waters.

Klopp was often seen in heated exchanges with officials on the touchline and José Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Alex Ferguson were no better. If the managers get away with expletive-filled rants against officials, what do you think the players and fans will do?

Players regularly hurl abuse at officials and very little is done about it. Soccer’s governing bodies need to take a harder line on match official abuse, just as rugby has done.

Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus during the South Africa captain's run at Merchiston on 9 November 2024 in Edinburgh. (Photo: Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images)

Rugby abuse

It’s not only soccer where officials have suffered, rugby has been in the spotlight in recent years too. The difference is though, that outbursts are the exception and not the norm because rugby’s authorities support officials.

Coaching greats Eddie Jones and Sir Clive Woodward both had pops at referees in their careers, and were quickly hauled into line.

It was Bok coach Rassie Erasmus who lit the touchpaper for the most severe punishment yet meted out at top-level rugby for abuse of officials.

His now infamous 62-minute clinical dissection against referee Nic Berry following the first Test against the 2021 British & Irish Lions, which the Boks lost, came close to ending Erasmus’s career. There were calls for a lifetime ban from the game.

That video highlighted more than 20 massive errors Berry made in the match played during Covid.

According to Erasmus, the video was only intended to be viewed by World Rugby’s refereeing department. It somehow leaked into the public domain and as a consequence of the fallout, Erasmus was suspended for 10 months.

Read more: Rassie Erasmus banned from ‘matchday activities’ for 10 months by World Rugby

No sooner had his suspension ended than he questioned officials on social media, following the Boks’ two losses to Ireland and France in November 2022. His posts were far from abusive towards officials themselves, but they sparked wild online abuse of the referees in those games. Erasmus was suspended for two weeks as a consequence.

There are obvious differences to the Coote incident because Erasmus’s anger at Berry was backed by evidence, and packaged for consumption by appropriate officials in the sport.

And while many supported Rassie’s message and content at the time (this writer included), it became obvious that the fallout (Berry was hatefully abused) and damage to the fabric of the game, was huge.

Even Erasmus came to the conclusion that his actions through his forensic video, even if they weren’t intended to be in the public domain, were damaging.

And Rassie has atoned and changed his attitude, maybe for self-preservation reasons, but definitely because he came to understand that it was wrong.

At last year’s World Cup in France, he revealed how the Boks (he) had reviewed their approach to interactions with officials, and come to the conclusion that they needed to change.

“Our whole motto has been ‘let’s respect the referees’. It works both ways,” Erasmus said after the quarterfinal victory over hosts France.

“He’s going to make mistakes and we’re going to make mistakes. And the frustration we had in the past, and the lack of communication because of various things with Covid … that is in the past. There’s a nice protocol in place, it’s easy to communicate with them.”

Human feelings

Mistakes are inevitable when humans are involved despite the increasing use of technology.

Rugby referees are expected to make decisions, or at least consider around 900 actions in a game. It’s an impossible task to do perfectly even with electronic aids.

Soccer is less complex in terms of laws and actions but like most sports, officials have to contend with deceit by players trying to “buy” free kicks and penalties.

In the round ball game they have to endure the constant verbal attacks from players and managers, and screaming abuse from fans. Of course, all officials are supposed to be impartial and unbiased.

But you’d not be human if you had been on the wrong end of constant vitriol from players/managers and fans and you went against that team on a close call. We’re not talking about blatant cheating here, just leaning towards one team over another on a 50/50 decision due to your feelings towards them.

Refs shouldn’t have biases, but they don’t operate in a perfect vacuum of compliance from players and coaches. They are part of the matrix that makes up a sporting event and they are susceptible to emotions as well.

Coote will pay the professional price for his ill-advised comments, but soccer needs to do better to protect officials from abusive managers.

World Rugby punished Erasmus and perhaps Coote’s video might lead to something positive when it comes to the protection of match officials. DM

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