Liverpool icon Jamie Carragher shares true feelings about David Coote video

Jamie Carragher has cast doubt on David Coote’s future as a Premier League referee following the emergence of a video showing Coote making derogatory remarks about Liverpool. The clip, which surfaced online and quickly went viral, features a voice disparaging the club and ex-manager Jurgen Klopp.

In light of the incident, Coote has been temporarily stood down by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) pending an investigation. Speaking on the latest episode of Stick To Football, Carragher delivered his verdict on the contentious footage.

He highlighted the timing of the video’s release, years after it was supposedly recorded, as particularly damaging for Coote. Carragher remarked: “The fact that it has come out four years after lockdown, for someone to have kept that and put it out now – people do stupid things. You’ve had a few drinks, and you wake up in the morning to delete that or whatever.

“But for someone to keep that is just… he [Coote] has had a nightmare and I’m not sure how he can referee in England again. When the [other] fella is saying what he said to the camera, just end the recording.

“I can’t imagine what [Coote] is going through now and I don’t want that cancel culture, but how can he now ref a rival? It’s not just that he can’t referee Liverpool, how does he referee Everton?

“The amount of eyes you get. The thing I despise most about social media is when a referee makes a decision and that whole fan base [is bickering]… But also, did people not think that referees thought [insults] about people anyway?” In the same episode, after the footage and allegations surfaced, Gary Neville suggested that while the video alone merited some form of punishment, it shouldn’t result in Coote losing his job. “He [Coote] should get a suspension of some kind,” Neville stated.

“Liverpool matches will be a no-go for him. I’d like to think he would come back and referee in the Premier League again.

“I don’t think someone being completely cancelled forever from doing their job, for calling someone a [c**t] is worthy. It’s not a sackable offence.

“If they do sack him, they’re then taking him off the employment list of everybody moving forward – and I don’t think that is right, but he needs punishing and he needs to understand the consequences.”

Neville further added: “If he had said that he ‘hates S*******’… that would have been a bigger problem than calling Jurgen Klopp a ‘c**t’.”