David Coote, former Premier League referee, has been handed a suspended prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to making an indecent image of a child.

The sentence of nine months in prison has been suspended for two years.

In October last year, the 43-year-old was charged with an allegation of a category A video, which was recovered by the police in February. Category A is the most serious kind possible.

The video involved a 15-year-old that was last accessed in January 2020, six years ago. The video, which lasted two minutes and eleven seconds, had been downloaded and viewed.

Coote, from Nottinghamshire, returned to Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday and received his sentence. This also included a sexual harm prevention order of 10 years and 150 hours of unpaid work.

Judge Nirmal Shant KC told Coote in court: “You have had a spectacular fall from grace.”

The fall from grace arguably started in November 2024 when a video got leaked of him calling Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool manager at the time, a “German c**t” and “f****ng arrogant”. This led to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) suspending Coote.

Later in November, another video emerged of David Coote snorting a white powder in his hotel room. The video is claimed to have been made that the video was made on the 6^th July. The day before that Coote was part of the VAR team in the quarter final between France and Portugal in Hamburg in Euro 2024.

In a statement, David Coote admitted to turning to drugs in fear of coming out as gay and in January 2025 said: “This has been one of the most difficult periods of my life”.

UEFA then banned Coote for 16 months in February 2025 for “bringing the sport od football, and UEFA in particular, into disrepute.”

Coote was consequently sacked by the PGMOL who terminated his contract in December 2024. Though they stated that they would continue to support Coote and committed to his welfare.