Former referee comes out as gay: “I received abuse during my career, it would have been difficult”
David Coote, sacked for insulting Jurgen Klopp and inhaling white powder in a video, admits he was under the influence of cocaine and says he is now in a “better place”

In an interview with The Sun , David Coote, a former English referee who was sacked after videos circulated of him inhaling a white powder and criticising Jurgen Klopp, admitted to being homosexual and that he had never come out as such for fear of reprisals.
“I am gay and have struggled to be proud of myself for a long time. I have received some deeply unpleasant abuse during my refereeing career and to add my sexuality to that would have been very difficult,” says Coote, who admits to having felt “tremendously ashamed” as a teenager. “My sexuality is not the reason I am in this position, but it would not be telling the whole story if I said I am gay and that I have struggled to deal with hiding that. I have hidden my emotions and my sexuality as a referee – a good quality as a referee, but a terrible quality as a human being. And that has led me to behave in certain ways,” says the former English referee.
David Coote also admits that the powder he inhaled was cocaine and says that, in the video in which he insulted Klopp, he was not sober. «I don’t recognise myself in that video. I don’t agree with what I said, but it was me.» Coote refereed more than 90 games that year and says that the overload led him to make those decisions. «I was dealing with the schedules badly and there was no opportunity to stop. That was a way of escaping. I am guilty of what I did, but I am trying to be the best person I can for now. I have taken steps to be better, both physically and psychologically», explained the former referee, who said he was «in a dark place». «I apologise to everyone I offended with my actions. I was not sober», he added.
The 42-year-old former referee also left a message for everyone in the same situation: “For everyone going through what I went through, I would say to seek help and talk to someone, because if you close yourself off like I did, you will have to get out somehow.”