Danny Murphy suggested David Coote will never referee a Premier League game again after a video showed him making derogatory comments about Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp.
The English referee has been suspended after video footage emerged apparently showing him branding Liverpool ‘s***’ and Jurgen Klopp a ‘German c***’.
As a result, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) – the body responsible for overseeing match officials – has launched an investigation after the video went viral this week.
The PGMOL said in a statement on Monday: “David Coote has been suspended with immediate effect pending a full investigation. PGMOL will be making no further comment until that process is complete.”
talkSPORT understands that Coote has accepted that the video is genuine and that it was recorded several years ago.
Ex-Liverpool star Murphy spoke about the incident on talkSPORT alongside journalist Darren Lewis and was asked how he would have felt as a player.
He said: “I’d be much more offended and angry and quick to blame and rightly so as a player, because you’re thinking, hold on, some of the games I’ve played and is the integrity being questioned of his intentions because of his dislike for the manager?
“Does that mean we missed out on something? All those things would have gone round in my head.
“I think a lot of players would be really fuming.
“An older me now tries to see the the more realistic situation and the good in some, not good in somebody, but the better version of somebody and think somebody’s made a mistake, spouting off stupid things and actually didn’t then let it go on to interfere with his job and his profession and his more clearer self as the months and years went by.
“That would be a more rounded, mature view that I would take now and hope that and not be so cynical with my views. A younger me was much more cynical.”
Lewis said: “If you were a player in a dressing room, you’d think very differently.
“There are hundreds of players right now in Premier League dressing rooms who will be looking at this story and thousands of fans, who are making their own statements on social media as we speak.
Murphy said to this: “Which is why he’ll be punished and won’t ref again. He’s done. They’ve got nowhere to go. He’s done. He’s done. He’s finished. He can’t ref there.”
In the video, which has been viewed millions of times on social media, Coote was asked for his thoughts by an unknown individual about Liverpool, and he replies: “Liverpool were s***.”
Pressed for his view on Klopp, he then remarks: “(Klopp is a) c***, absolute c***.
“Aside from having a right pop at me when I was refereeing them against Burnley in lockdown, he accused me of lying and then had a right f****** pop of me.
“I have no interest in speaking to someone who is f****** arrogant. So I do my best not to speak to him.
“(James) Milner is all right, I get on with him. You can see me there with a ‘mask’ on. But, my god, German c***, f*** me.”
Also responding to the video, Jamie O’Hara and Jason Cundy first expressed their sympathy for what Coote was going through on a personal level.
Speaking on The Sports Bar, O’Hara said: “David, David, he’s had a bit of a stinker there, hasn’t he?
“First of all, whoever released that video is an absolute you-know-what for pretty much bringing a man down.
“We’ve all said stupid things and he’s a very stupid boy saying it to camera but we don’t know what kind of context it’s in and what mood he was in at that moment so I feel for him a little bit on a human level because he’ll be going through some bad moments right now and so I feel for him.
“But you can’t get away from the fact that he’s been a stupid man.”
Cundy replied: “That’s an understatement.
“We know it’s a long time ago because he talks about face masks and social distancing so it’s going to be 2020 or 2021 but it’s uncomfortable viewing for a number of reasons.
“Look, he’s not killed anyone but he’s going to get hung because we know what football fans can be like when a decision doesn’t go our way.
“The game in our country shouldn’t be under the scrutiny that it is right now for being corrupt – I don’t want to believe that there is corruption in there.
“We’ve all done it, it just so happens that he cannot be filmed and cannot be caught saying this, but I’m uncomfortable with it because the integrity of the game has to be held to the highest standard.
“Unfortunately he has let that side of it down and as football fans, I don’t want that in my game.
“He will lose his job. I can’t see a world where he’ll keep refereeing in this country – I said earlier that it wouldn’t surprise me if at some point down the line he ends up in Saudi because we’ve seen Mark Clattenburg and other referees do this.
“On a human level I feel desperately sorry for him. He must be in a very dark place right now because this will be all over the world, but it’s unacceptable.”
Dermot Gallagher also joined O’Hara and Cundy and said that Cootes will get the chance to give his version of events, saying: “I don’t know what’s going to happen, I know as much as you.
“Someone alerted me to the video after it was released and sent me a text of it and then I heard the PGMOL have made a statement and suspended him pending an investigation that they have to do.
“There’s a process that they have to go through and it’s only when that investigation is complete that the outcome will be known.”
Asked what will happen, Gallagher said: “It’s hard for me to say because I’ve never been involved in anything like this in my life.
“I suppose the first thing they’ll have to do is authenticate the video is real or AI, so to speak, but the investigation will hinge on a number of things and he’ll have to speak to his bosses.
“They’ll look for fairness – he’s got to be able to give his case and explain himself and that will unfold how they see it but the one problem that referees have in life is that they’re subjected to spectators viewing things through the prism of their club colours and every supporters remembers every decision that they perceive goes against them.”
