Former referee David Coote pleads guilty to making indecent image of child – The New York Times

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David Coote, the former Premier League referee, is facing a possible prison sentence after pleading guilty to making an indecent image of a child.
The 43-year-old, whose contract was terminated by Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) — the body which runs refereeing in England — last December, admitted the offence during a brief hearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday.
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It follows a police investigation that discovered an indecent image of a 15-year-old on a hard drive at Coote’s house. The court was told that the image ranked as a Category A offence, the most serious level, and was last accessed in January 2020.
Coote, from Newark, Nottinghamshire, will be sentenced on December 11 and he was warned that he should not disregard the possibility that he will receive a prison sentence.
Adjourning the hearing for pre-sentence reports, the judge, Nirmal Shant, told him: “Whether this means custody or not depends on the information brought to court. You mustn’t go away with the impression this means a non-custodial sentence — it doesn’t.”
Coote, wearing a blue suit and tie, did not speak during the hearing other than to say “guilty” when the charge was read out to him. He had previously pleaded not guilty at a separate hearing last month, but will now be added to the sex offenders’ register for a length of time to be determined by his sentence.
His bail conditions forbid him from being unsupervised in the company of any child under 18, or staying at any address where anyone of that age is present.
Ben Payne, the prosecutor, had told last month’s hearing that the police had become involved after an independent company examined two mobile phones and allegedly discovered “two conversations of concern”.
Coote has not officiated since he was suspended by PGMOL in November last year after a video emerged on social media of him calling former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp “f***ing arrogant” and a “German c***”.
Three days later, The Sun published a separate video which it claimed showed Coote sniffing white powder through a rolled-up American bank note. The video was reportedly from July 6, the day after the Euro 2024 quarter-final between France and Portugal in Hamburg where Coote was the assistant Video Assistant Referee.
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In February, Coote was banned from officiating in UEFA competitions for 16 months for “violating the basic rules of decent conduct” and “bringing the sport of football, and UEFA in particular, into disrepute.”
That was followed in August by the English Football Association handing down an eight-week suspension because of his comments about Klopp.
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Daniel Taylor was named Sports Journalist of the Year at the 2025 British Press Awards, the third time he has won the award. He is also a four-time Football Journalist of the Year and the winner of numerous other awards for his reporting, investigative work and feature writing. Daniel, a senior writer for The Athletic, is based in Manchester and was previously the chief football writer for The Guardian/The Observer. He has written five books. Follow Daniel on Twitter @DTathletic

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