Fans should be ‘wildly up in arms’ about David Coote and his ‘racist’ slur
The David Coote story rumbles on and it’s getting serious; it was a racist slur and the PGMOL cannot be trusted to be fair.
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A precedent has been set
In 2018, Bobby Madley, a professional referee, was the subject of an unpleasant newspaper article written by Mark Halsey (ex-referee and renowned cock) that called him “Blobby Bobby”, which suggested that he was making mistakes because he was overweight.
Madley was dealing with the fallout from this when he joked, in a Snapchat style message (it was never posted on any form of social media) to a close friend that despite his apparent fatness, he might have a chance of winning the parents race at a school sports day, using a video of someone else at the sports day who had a disability.
That was all he did, make a slightly poor taste joke that took the piss out of himself to someone he trusted. This person, for reasons that are not understood, chose to send the message to the FA, who duly sacked him for his failure to uphold the standards that were expected of a professional referee.
I barely know where to start. I don’t know much of Madley, but I do know that making a slightly off-colour joke to a close friend (ex-close friend, one would presume) should not have resulted in him losing his job. I mean, f*** the FA – they clearly should have had a quiet word, rather than ruining someone’s life and throwing this into the public domain, the pompous, draconian f***wits that they clearly are. Madley has clawed his way back, and is now refereeing in the Premier League again, after four years of exile.
So if anyone thinks that David Coote is going to get a slap on the wrist for a much more obvious and serious infraction, well, they need a reality check. What he has been caught doing is a hundred times worse than this. That it was Klopp and Liverpool he said it about makes no difference at all, no matter how obsessed you might be with your blind, impotent rage at Klopp and Liverpool.
Hope that clears things up adequately, but doubt it.
Mat (It’s been super sweet seeing Garey and BW get all giddy about a manager that has replaced someone that they didn’t want replacing. Long live the soap opera.)
READ: David Coote ‘can never referee again’ as Liverpool bias is exposed
It’s not funny…it’s serious
Am I going insane? I feel like I am going mental. For years, nay decades, every fan of every club has been complaining about referees and that there is at least enough coincidental evidence that certain referees show at least unconscious bias for/against certain clubs.
Now we have a video proving that one of the Premier League’s leading referees not only admits that he genuinely hates one club, and that it has potentially massively affected his judgement in games of theirs he was officiating, but that he also lied about it and the governing body in charge of him (PGMOL) just brushed it under the carpet. And the general consensus of most fans so far – an overwhelming shrug of the shoulders!
How are people not wildly up in arms about this? Why are we not all pushing for a ban or a suspension on referees until this is investigated by an outside body rather than an internal investigation that, as is always the case with PGMOL, ends up finding nothing wrong. How is everyone so unbothered by this?
The standard of officiating as football has got faster, and more physical over the years is at an all-time low and adding a completely inconsistent and more subjective VAR on the top of all this has not helped at all. The Police policing the police does not help and we finally have a reason to legitimise all our complaints and as fans we seem to be so entrenched in our partisan worship is that basically all anyone has to say is “LOL Liverpool” or some kind of weird defence of how technically calling someone a C**T is not a sackable offense.
Honestly am I alone here or has everyone completely missed how important and serious this is?
Chris, London
Why calling somebody a German c@nt is racist
I hope Alex (morning mailbox) was at least trying to be funny, I hope Alex is ludicrously naïve, but using a line that Coote is fine because ‘literally he is right’ is an appalling look. Alex’s assertion is that ‘Klopp is German. Klopp is a c@nt. Ergo, Klopp is a German C@nt’ is the worst kind of 1990s justification for racism. I remember a relative once defending Peter Schmeichel allegedly calling Ian Wright a black c@nt in the same terms- ‘he’s black and he’s a c@nt’.
Whatever comes before c@nt is the insult. The person issuing believes that it is an insulting term and they mean it to be so. I was at a non-league game on the weekend and had the pleasure of seeing the home manager call members of the away dug out ‘monobrow c@nt’, ‘squareheaded c@nt’ and ‘shortarsed c@nt’. In each instance his intention was to pick something he thought was insulting to add before ‘c@nt’.
In Coote’s case the word he chose before ‘c@nt’ was German. Therefore, he others Klopp for his nationality and it is racist. Otherwise, why not just call him a c@nt?
I have never someone call someone else a ‘generous c@nt’, an ‘openminded c@nt’ or a ‘caring c@nt’ when insulting them. Whatever word they pick if one they think adds to the insult and if they pick their nationality or their ethnicity, it is racist.
[Insert clever name here] as I can’t be bothered with the backlash that always comes with pointing out something is racist
…Hmmmmm.
I think we can all agree, without seeing his passport, that Jurgen Klopp is German. I’ll accept this as fact.
Some people think he’s also a c@nt (how exactly are you pronouncing that?). I think that’s a bit subjective myself but I’ll accept that someone has the right to hold that opinion.
So if Coote thinks Jurgen Klopp is a) German (fact) and b) a c@nt (opinion) then that is ok.
However, when you put the one after the other it becomes something else. Some might say racist. A good way of checking, if you’re unsure, is to replace the ethnic term, in this case “German” with the word “black”. If that makes you uncomfortable then congratulations! You’ve just discovered what racism is!
Do you see?
And for the record I’m not saying that Coote is racist, merely that something he’s said is, by definition, racist.
For the rest of the incident I have some sympathy. It’s hard to be a position where you need to be seen as impartial. You invariably will have opinions that make it difficult to act impartially. And it’s doubly hard in an environment where everyone thinks you’re biased against their team. It’s very important that you at least maintain the appearance of being impartial. Better to be seen as just be a bit rubbish than actively giving decisions against certain teams.
Unfortunately for Coote, any hope of ever being seen as impartial again has evaporated. Even if we discount the racism bit (which we shouldn’t), he can’t referee any games with any impact on Liverpool ever again.
He also lied about the authenticity of the video so he’s also not trustworthy.
But I suspect we will see him refereeing again. We’ve already seen attempts to say this was “out of character” and no doubt there’ll be some arguments about him “making a mistake” and that this was an “historical offence”.
And he might also point to the continued employment of all those referees that have been paid by owners of certain Premier League clubs as a defence against any attempts to sack him (though I suspect the racism element is useful to PGMOL for that reason). I wonder if money or hatred is more of a motivating factor when it comes to breaking impartiality?
As if by magic, there’s a recent example of why Coote has to go: the West Ham penalty against United.
Under one interpretation Coote doesn’t see a penalty; Michael Oliver as VAR makes a mistake and sends Coote to the monitor; Coote makes another mistake and changes his original decision.
Under another interpretation scouser hating, United fan loving Coote doesn’t give a soft penalty against United; Abu Dhabi owned VAR Michael Oliver sees an opportunity to screw United over and sends Coote back to the screen; conscious of a video that exists questioning his impartiality Coote gives in to his more senior colleague and gives the pen.
The above is a massive conspiracy theory and likely untrue. But because PGMOL continue to employ people whose impartiality can be questioned, these are allowed to fester. For years I used to think the “Howard Webb supports United” stuff was just nonsense. I honestly thought he was just a bit crap. But given he’s in charge of this shit show I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more to it. That change in my opinion is entirely down to his management of PGMOL. He has to go.
Finally, that decision not to send Pickford off makes complete sense now. There’s no way Coote can referee another top-flight game.
Ash Metcalfe
LFC fan hypocrites
No one does hypocrisy quite like LFC and its fans.
Coote was wrong to use ‘German’ ahead of his flowery language. Thereafter he expressed a view about Klopp that many people hold – he is a c unit.
But any LFC fan who has jumped on the Coote issue yet supported Suarez – either in his use of racist language or as a player afterwards – you are an absolute hypocrite. Plain and simple. There’ll be loads of you in that camp.
Branmasterflash
Can we have more referee transparency please?
The one thing I’d like out of all of this palaver concerning David Coote is greater transparency between officials and fans.
If audio is available of ref’s conversations on-field decisions, as well as with the fourth official, and refs were available for interview/comment after matches, decisions become less inexplicable to fans, we don’t fill the gaps ourselves with thoughts of conspiracy, and claims of bias would tend to be quieter.
Do I blame Coote for expressing derogatory feelings towards Liverpool? No, he’s human, we all have prejudices even if only mild ones. But it does call into question his (and others’) role as a decision-maker, and greater transparency can help win trust back as well as maybe (naive optimism, here) actually increase respect levels to a new level if applied correctly.
Al, Nottingham
Arsenal fans in a coalition of losers with Spurs
Ever since I came to know about the existence of Arsenal fans around 2004-5, I have been in absolute love with them. No matter how rubbish the week has been, Arsenal fans usually find a way to bring a smile to my face with their clownery and top-tier excuses for what is now a generation’s worth of time of just absolutely losing and being perennial losers just ever so slightly above Spurs.
What makes it hilarious?
1. They hate Spurs with their entire being, but are literally just a slightly bigger/elder brother of that club. Three days back, you could replace Ange’s name from the entire mailbox to Arteta, and those are the same excuses Arsenal fans have.
2. Last season this, last season that…last season you won nothing, same with the 3 seasons before, and your team is on the downfall. The pure oblivious behavior and recognition of that is what is again hilarious. Arteta took his shot the best he could with no injuries, players on top form, good luck etc etc, and still came up short.
3. Arteta is their version of Gerrard, Lampard, Ole. But they cannot see it yet.
4. FOUR YEARS without a trophy yet you wanna persist with the same managers because “Look what changing managers had done for Chelsea & United”. You mean won the Champions League, Europa League, FA Cup, Premier League, EFL & more amongst both teams (Since Arteta was appointed) . Oh the horror!
5. Won the FA Cup with a squad that wasn’t his. Wasted 750 mill just to be where they were in 2010.
6. The icing on this crapcake? Two years of nonstop hounding out of their greatest manager Arsene Wenger for “just” finishing in the top 4 and playing good football & ONLY winning domestic FA cups. With marches, protests, banners and pure hate spewing from the stands at times. All of that just to be where they were 10 years back, with a lesser manager, no trophies and having to defend him with all their heart. A weird bunch of people who would do this, but hey, what do I know.
Yet, the fans are happy and “not entitled”. Which basically translated to: We are happy being Tottenham Hotspur. And more power to you for joining forces with your white jersey neighbours. Maybe you two can form the coalition of losers between y’all.
Cheers
Aman Sheth
Interlull daydreams and diversions
What we ultimately would like and reality are often quite far apart. I agree with many contributors to the mailbox that any team minus City becoming Champions of England would be good. If that could be Forest or Brighton then even better. The reality is that until other teams in the top ten are financed by entire countries then it’s gonna be more than tough.
We like to say in English football that it is cyclical. Whether Rumplestiltskin goes or stays, the best of the best will be sought, the squad refurnished with the best players in the world and on the skyblue half of Manchester will go.
To daydream otherwise needs context, as in , if Liverpool were backed by the US military budget or Chelsea by the Israeli state or the cuddly Saud Royal family owned Man United, U.S.S.R. were behind Arsenal, Brighton & Norfkorea Albion, you get the picture…. then, there is an ‘even playing field’.
What exists in Real and Munchen and Paris. (and many other countries too) is currently mirrored in English football, like it or not.
We have heard how Barça have ‘unseemly connections with refs. We know about some ref ‘holidays in Abudhabi. Anything and everything is tainted. It’s almost as if there ought to be a shiny, lovely trophy for City, PSG, Madrid and Bayern et al , then another, made of granite or something, for the ‘plucky underdogs’ that come second but ‘in an alternate footballing reality’ come first .
I totally get why Jürgen had to be like he was to upset the new status quo, you need so, so much to even get a sniff in front of these behemoths – or in Wengerly ‘financially doped’.
No football club in England is gonna knock Citeh off of their fooquin canal ship.
Thus, the future of English football requires the correct reigning in by its authorities . ‘Unlikely’ I hear you say but state ownership has to go .
Peter (Mark Chapman – way better than cardboard Gary – please take the usual x player pundits with you ), Andalusia
Loans and revenue are not the same thing
Big point missing in Blueintoothandclaw’s analysis of City and the APT tribunal; loans and revenue are not the same thing!
The tribunal evaluating APT agreed that it was unfair that the PL applied ‘fair market valuations’ to commercial deals (which is revenue) but not to shareholder loans. They did not say they are the same thing.
Loans and revenue are wildly different (in practice, on balance sheets and for PSR). If a club can just make up (through use of 3rd party intermediaries, which petrostate owners can) revenue in inflated commercial deals, then their clubs can just make more money and spend more money than anyone else. Clear financial doping and circumventing PSR.
Shareholder loans are adding cash to the club, but also adding debt. This is public reported and PSR and other metrics can hold this in check/punish clubs for adding more debt. This isn’t financial doping or adding value to the club.
The ‘unfairness’ through shareholder loans then is what the club’s owner can offer versus the market – this is effectively the difference of interest + the loan potentially having no fixed repayment terms (also hypothetically the owner not applying standard market risk analysis to their own club meaning a club could borrow when they normally wouldn’t be allowed/be too high risk, but this doesn’t realistically apply to PL clubs).
Now this could be sizeable, equating to maybe 10s of millions a year on a large enough loan. It is not nothing.
But it is incomparable to a commercial deal of £150m or so being doubled to £300m, out of line with other deals of the same type.
We are talking apples and oranges here.
Now, the broader point about Arsenal being BoE club since 1930s etc is not unfair – clubs have always done what they can to have more money and spend more.
But the rules are now in place to try and create as level a playing field and prevent club collapse as they can. There is evidence that City have attempted to break these and then lie about it. This is what they are being charged with, and no amount of pointing at other clubs doing things that in line with existsing rules should distract from this core point.
Also, it must be stressed, director/shareholder loans to businesses is a 100% legal and common practice, particularly in the SME space, outside of football (it comes with its own obvious risks and costs) so there is no reason to have it disallowed *until* it is ruled to impact competition law/rules. They were also approved/voted on by all PL clubs, including City, which should give you an idea about how much they cared about them until they started feeling the noose around their necks.
Tom, (for PSR reporting purposes, the PL could apply market-rate interest to shareholder loans – this would turn them into an inherent risk/competitive cost for PL clubs if they weren’t making regular repayments) Leyton
