David Coote

I'm shocked, but not the least bit surprised.

 

Organised crime. I'm betting (pun intended) that the PGMOL is riddled with it to its core (and various sections of sports journalism as well).

 

If that's what the 'match fixing' allegations are based on them it's a bit silly really. It doesn't prove or suggest any wrong doing, it just shows Coote's stupidity.

 

I see the refereeing team for our game against Man City involves three referees from Manchester...

 

Coote said as discussed did you bet on that player getting booked.

It could mean anything but it does say to me someone has hacked his phone and is going through all his messages looking for this stuff. They looked at videos and found the cocaine party stuff so it's a little odd this one took so long then to drop

 

Honestly, if true, that's the worst of the lot.

 

It's looking like Coote is a weak character all round and not suited to a job where he has to be impartial. I think it's probably one person, possibly a friend he's fallen out with, who's either leaking these bits piecemeal to the rag (the apparent source) or the rag itself has all the texts and whatever and they are leaking them in stages to keep the story going.

 

Or an 'organisation'.

 

Possibly. It all seems way too personal to me.

 

There's somebody on our board who is generally quite knowledgeable on these things (and does/has worked in media) who has hinted that it's an ex partner.

 

Makes sense to me.

Someone skimmed a phone or whatever and the time between the first stuff and this booking stuff does feel like someone digging away.

 

Coote sacked.

 

That took a long time considering the evidence.

 

VAR had to look at it.

 

Would have been interesting to see what the punishment would have been if it was just the Klopp video. As soon as the other videos came out there was no chance he wasn't getting sacked.

 

I was surprised he didn't walk just walk away initially; do referees get a payout same as managers?

 

"Following the conclusion of a thorough investigation ..... his employment with PGMOL has been terminated ... his actions were found to be in serious breach .... his position untenable .... supporting him continues to be important .... he has a right to appeal"

No explanation as to whether they knew anything about his behaviour going back over the years and no assurances that it won't happen again.

 

For all we know, there could be more we don't know about....

 

I don't know. There was a suggestion a while ago that referees were self employed and contracted by PGMOL but I don't know if that's the case. I haven't checked. If it is then no payout I would imagine.

 

The statement from PGMOL says "employment contract", which would suggest to me that he was directly employed.