Ex-Premier League referee David Coote comes out as gay and admits to taking cocaine

Former Premier League referee David Coote has come out as gay, claiming he took to cocaine out of fear over coming out in a 'macho world.

Coote was dismissed from his post after a series of damaging videos, with one seeing him call Jurgen Klopp an 'arrogant German c***', while another emerged of him taking the Class-A drug while working as an official at Euro 2024.

In his first interview on the scandal, Coote explained that living a lie led to the end of his career.

“I felt a deep sense of shame during my teenage years in particular," Coote said in a tearful interview with The Sun.

“I didn’t come out to my parents until I was 21. I didn’t come out to my friends until I was 25.

“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.”

He added: “I’ve had issues around my self-esteem — and that relates to my sexuality. I’m gay and I’ve struggled with feeling proud of being ‘me’ over a long period of time.

“I have received deeply unpleasant abuse during my career as a ref and to add my sexuality to that would have been really difficult.

“There’s a lot to be done throughout football and more widely in society with regard to discrimination.

“I didn’t want to be that person that was putting their head above the parapet to be shot at, given the abuse we all get as a referee in any event.”

Coote added that a 'pressure cooker' of suppressed emotion, combined with a punishing work schedule, left him wanting to 'escape' with cocaine.

He said: “It’s not something I was reliant on day by day, week by week, month by month.

“I’ve had long periods where I’ve not used it — but it was one of the escape routes I had. Just getting away from the stresses, the relentlessness of the job. It fills me with a huge sense of shame to say that I took that route.”

He recalled: “In 2023 I lost my mum very suddenly. At the same time my uncle was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. After Covid and the introduction of VAR, six officials were suddenly needed for each game.

“I was selected by Fifa for the U17 World Cup in Indonesia, as well as the Euros and Olympics last year.

“It meant that over the course of the 2023-24 season I was involved in more than 90 games — often back to back. At the end of last season I went straight into the Euros and that was incredibly pressurised. I had another tournament coming up immediately — heading to Paris for the Olympics.”

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