Former Premier League referee David Coote has pleaded guilty to making an indecent image of a child.
According to Nottinghamshire Police, the charge is of the most serious Category A offence and relates to a video recovered by officers in February.
The charge of making an indecent image of a child refers to activities such as downloading, sharing or saving abuse photos or videos. Images which are classified Category A customarily show children involved in ‘penetrative sexual activity’, according to Sentencing Council guidelines.
Coote, who wore a navy suit and black tie at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday morning, spoke only to confirm his name and enter his plea during the hearing in front of Judge Nirmal Shant KC.
The judge told Coote, who stood in the dock with his hands clasped in front of him, that she was ordering a pre-sentence report to be carried out before he was to be sentenced.
She said: ‘You have pleaded guilty to a serious matter. Whether this means custody or not will be decided when all the information is before the court, which is why I have ordered a pre-sentence report.’
The former referee, of Woodhill Road in Collingham, near Newark, Nottinghamshire, was granted conditional bail by Judge Shant and told he must appear in court again on December 11.
Coote was sacked by Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) last December after a video of abusive comments he had made about former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp emerged on social media.
He was also banned by UEFA until June 30, 2026 after a different video emerged of him snorting a white powder through a bank note while in Germany for Euro 2024.
In January, Coote came out as gay and said he took cocaine to escape the ‘stresses and relentlessness of the job’.
‘I didn’t come out to my parents until I was 21. I didn’t come out to my friends until I was 25,’ he said.
‘My sexuality isn’t the only reason that led me to be in that position. But I’m not telling an authentic story if I don’t say that I’m gay, and that I’ve had real struggles dealing with hiding that.
‘I hid my emotions as a young ref and I hid my sexuality as well – a good quality as a referee but a terrible quality as a human being. And that’s led me to a whole course of behaviours.’
In August, Coote was also given an eight-week suspension by the Football Association over the Klopp footage.
Speaking in the summer, PGMOL chief Howard Webb ruled out the prospect of Coote making a return to officiating.
‘I think it’d be really difficult for David to come back, I’m afraid to say,’ Webb said.
‘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 with David, but I would think it would be challenging thing for him to come back.’
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