Howard Webb provides update on Premier League return for disgraced referee David Coote after Jurgen Klopp comments that led to FA ban

Coote has been handed a fresh suspension ahead of the new season after making derogatory comments about former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in a video that was filmed during lockdown and later leaked online. Other claims were levelled against Coote, leading to him admitting to drug use, and he has since been sacked from the Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) organisation.

Now, Webb has weighed in on the prospect of Coote one day officiating again. And the chief refereeing officer believes that the disgraced official would "find it very difficult" to work his way back to elite officiating. 

Webb said, per The Guardian: “I think it’d be really difficult for David to come back, I’m afraid to say.

“He is somebody that we stay in contact with, somebody who was part of our refereeing family for a long time and served the game as well for a long period of time and I’ve known him personally for many years. So it’s sad what happened with David, but I would think it would be a challenging thing for him to come back.”

He added: “It became apparent that David had made some bad choices away from the football field. He was an employee of ours. So obviously we had to care for him and we had to try to understand why he made some of those choices and where they connected to the job that he had.

“We spoke to all of our officials as well other officials and said: ‘How are you feeling about all of this?’ And there was some feedback that came back from them about the support that they think they need. And then it was a good time for us to reflect on the services that we do provide within our own staff expertise.”

Coote will continue to rebuild his life away from the football field. A return to refereeing, it seems, is simply not going to happen.