Former Premier League referee David Coote comes out as gay
Coote says "the deeply unpleasant abuse" he received as a referee made him fearful of revealing his sexuality
By Gary Grimes
Former Premier League referee David Coote has come out publicly as gay.
“I’m gay and I have struggled with feeling proud of being ‘me’ over a long period of time,” said Coote, 42.
The former referee said that he previously came out to his parents aged 21 and his friends at 25.
“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,” he said.
Coote’s admission follows news last year involving his cocaine use during the Euros 2024.
Speaking to The Sun, Coote explains that he resorted to using the substance in part because of the pressure he was under in concealing his sexuality. “My sexuality isn’t the only reason that led me to be in that position,” he told the paper. “I hid my emotions as a young ref and I hid my sexuality as well.”
Coote, who in the leaked footage can be heard referring to Liverpool F.C. manager Jurgen Klopp as a “cunt”, says that during this time he was “good quality as a referee but terrible quality as a human being [sic].”
“I have received deeply unpleasant abuse during my career as a ref and to add my sexuality to that would have been really difficult”
Coote went on to elaborate that the abuse he often faced in his role as a referee contributed to his reluctance to coming out for fear it would give disgruntled players or fans another opportunity to insult him during a match.
“I have received deeply unpleasant abuse during my career as a ref and to add my sexuality to that would have been really difficult,” he revealed.
“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.” The former referee said that he believes there is still “a lot more to be done” with regard to discrimination in the football world.
“Football became a place where I could go and referee and be engrossed in the game”
In spite of that, Coote stated that his love of the game itself could also act as an escape from the double life he was forced to live. “I put on this hard exterior. Football became a place where I could go and referee and be engrossed in the game,” he said. “But then I’d come home and it would be more difficult because I’m living a double sense of being.”
Amal Fashanu, niece of Justin Fashanu, the first top flight footballer to come out in 1990, also spoke to the paper for the piece saying: “It is very brave for anyone to come out, but more so for someone in the public eye.
“This will affect David Coote and is a big step but it should have less of an effect that it would on a player. It’s not the same level of fame.”
Fashanu, who now runs a foundation in the name of her late uncle who sadly died by suicide in 1998, extended an offer to speak to Coote and help to provide counselling services.
“There’s still something very wrong at the top of football,” she went on to say. “We’re in 2025, when everyone is supposedly liberal and accepting, yet something is stopping these men accepting who they are. Football is still failing in this regard.”