Ex-Premier League referee David Coote has revealed he is gay.
Coote was sacked from his post after a series of damaging videos emerged
In one he is seen calling Jurgen Klopp an ‘arrogant German c***’, and in another taking Class-A drugs while working as an official at Euro 2024.
In a first interview since the controversy he blamed that living a lie led to the end of his career.
Speaking to The Sun he said:.“I felt a deep sense of shame during my teenage years in particular.
“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 continued: “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.”
On his cocaine use he admitted it was an escape for him from the stresses of his role.
“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.”
“I don’t recognise myself in the cocaine video. I can’t resonate with how I felt then, but that was me. I was struggling with the schedule and there was no opportunity to stop. And so I found myself in that position — escaping.”
Coote was dismissed in December after being “in serious breach of the provisions of his employment contract, with his position deemed untenable”.
