A Premier League referee has been suspended for an alleged rant about Liverpool.
Video footage emerged of David Coote appearing to launch an expletive-laden tirade against the Anfield club and their former manager Jurgen Klopp.
In the clip purportedly of the 42-year-old, he refers to the Reds as “s**t” and calls Klopp a “c**t” while in conversation with another man filming him.
He expands on the point about Klopp by saying: “Aside from having a right pop at me when I was reffing against Burnley in lockdown, he accused me of lying and then just had a right f***ing pop at me.
“I’ve got no interest in speaking to somebody as f***ing arrogant. I do my best not to speak to him… my god, German c***t. F*** me.”
Another clip depicts Coote allegedly saying: “Just to be clear that f***ing last video can’t go anywhere.”
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) confirmed he has been suspended pending the outcome of their investigation into the videos.
“David Coote has been suspended with immediate effect pending a full investigation,” read an official statement.
“PGMOL will be making no further comment until that process is complete.”
Coote has been at the heart of a number of controversies involving Liverpool matches including refereeing their home win over Aston Villa last weekend.
He refused to send off Leon Bailey for a last-man foul on Mohamed Salah during the first half, which culminated in Darwin Nunez opening the scoring.
A decision not to award a penalty against Martin Odegaard for handball in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal led to an admission of error by PGMOL chief Howard Webb.
In 2020 Coote came under fire as a VAR operator for refusing to recommend Everton’s Jordan Pickford be sent off for a season-ending challenge on Virgil van Dijk.
Later in the game he also overturned Jordan Henderson’s potential stoppage-time winner by inconclusively ruling Sadio Mane offside in the build-up.