REFEREE David Coote may face an unusual FA charge due to “reference to nationality” during his furious tirade towards ex-Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp.

A shocking clip, which appears to be at least two years old, emerged showing Coote, 42, branding Klopp, 57, a ” German c**t” and Liverpool as “s**t”.

2

2

Advertisement

Within a couple of hours of it first being circulated publicly, it was announced the ref had been “suspended with immediate effect pending a full investigation” by the PGMOL.

According to The Times, the FA will make their own separate probe for the use of the word “German” and that could lead to an aggravated misconduct charge.

That is because references to a person’s nationality can lead to stiffer sanctions.

FA rules state that an “aggravated breach” includes a reference “whether express or implied, to race and/or colour and/or ethnic origin and/or nationality”.

An FA spokesperson said: “We are aware of the matter, and we are investigating.”

SunSport understands Coote “cannot recall” abusing Klopp in the video rant that seems certain to end his refereeing career.

But the Nottinghamshire official is not denying the accuracy of the footage.

In the video circulated online, Coote also said: “Aside from having a right pop at me when I was refereeing them against Burnley in lockdown, he accused me of lying and then had a right f*****g pop of me.

“I have no interest in speaking to someone who is f*****g arrogant.

“So I do my best not to speak to him. James Milner is alright, I get on with him.

“You can see me there with a ‘mask’ on. But, my God, German c**t, f**k me.”

Bonnyrigg have been deducted six points, warned about their future conduct and now must provide details by 31 January of funding arrangements and a programme of works to allow pitch levelling works next summer.

It means Bonnyrigg drop four places from fourth to third bottom, still two points above Clyde and Forfar Athletic.

Appealing for donations, the club said on X: “The Rosey Posey, the heartbeat to our community, needs your help.

“We are fundraising to help towards levelling the pitch as well as improve draining, etc., to ensure compliance with league membership.”

Bonnyrigg won promotion to League 2 in 2022 after winning the Lowland League and finished eighth of the 10 teams last season.

England will head to Portugal in their opening game of the 2025 Women’s Nations League after Uefa announced the match schedule for the competition.

The Lionesses start their campaign with an away trip to the team ranked 22nd in the world in their first fixture of Group A3 on 21 February.

Sarina Wiegman’s side then face World Cup holders, and Nations League champions, Spain in a highly anticipated fixture on home turf five days later.

Scotland travel to Austria in their first game in Group A1 before they host the Netherlands on matchday two.

Wales head to Italy for their opening encounter in Group A4 then have a home fixture with Sweden.

Northern Ireland begin Group B1 with a game in Poland and then host Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Jon Anik would prefer divisional meritocracy, and the result of the upcoming Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic heavyweight title fight could muddy the waters even more.

Jones and Miocic headline Saturday’s UFC 309 pay-per-view card with Jones putting his title on the line for the first time. Since Jones’ octagon absence, Tom Aspinall has won and defended the interim heavyweight title — historically suggesting that he should be next in line for a shot to unify the titles.

While the fan base would love to see Jones face Aspinall, “Bones” has continued to no-sell Aspinall, and instead focused his attention on planting seeds for a champ vs. champ fight with light heavyweight title holder Alex Pereira. Anik was asked about the situation days away from the promotion’s return to Madison Square Garden.

“Well, certainly it stands to reason that Alex ‘Poatan’ may be the bigger money fight,” Anik told MMA Fighting. “It may not be the fight that has the greater fan appetite, but maybe it is. ‘Poatan’ versus Jon Jones is absolutely enormous, right? But there are a lot of us that operate as true, die hard sports fans in a meritocracy in our brains and just doesn’t sit well with this interim champion who has already defended the title idling or sitting pat, especially when you look at how good Tom Aspinall is across every aspect of mixed martial arts.

“But what is Jon Jones’ net worth? What is Stipe Miocic’s net worth? What if your financial advisor might tell you you need to retire — because I can assure you I’m not retiring — in terms of what you actually need? And so Jon Jones fighting Tom Aspinall or Alex, what does he make? $15 million? Is that worth it? Is that worth risking the 0? I don’t know, but if Jon Jones is worth $25-$30 million and it stands to reason, there are a lot of opportunities for him to make money beyond fighting, I don’t know. If you were his manager, would you tell him to risk the O and legacy because he should fight Tom, because Tom’s got the interim belt and Tom’s the f*cking man? I don’t know that you do that.

“You can be sure… well, I shouldn’t say this, but I would submit to you that for Dana White and Hunter Campbell, they would much rather make a Jon Jones-Tom Aspinall fight than inject Alex ‘Poatan into’ the equation. But Jon Jones does have status as the greatest mixed martial arts athlete of all time,. so if he wants to fight ‘Poatan,’ I’d imagine, promotionally, you would listen.”

Anik will call the action with Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier — who has had multiple fights with both headliners over his hall of fame career — and understands why Miocic is a massive underdog in the former champ’s first fight in nearly four years.

But what if Miocic goes into The World’s Most Famous Arena and regains the heavyweight title? Anik understands how surprising that could be for a lot of fight fans to see, but also believes that if the Cleveland native pulls this off, perhaps he’d stick around to give Aspinall is opportunity to beat a legend of the game.

“This is the fight game, right? I mean, Belal Muhammad now has a life-threatening injury, and had that happened during his training camp for Leon Edwards, he probably never gets that undisputed championship opportunity,” Anik said. “So, yes, it’s crazy to sort of think about the prospects for Tom Aspinall, no matter who wins this fight. I will say to you if Stipe Miocic wins this fight — and you have me thinking about how I would cap it, were he to do so — but if Stipe Miocic wins this fight, I think he will fight Tom Aspinall. And if it’s a relatively quick fight, maybe in short order to try to realize that payday, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Stipe want to make one title defense against Tom Aspinall and then ride off into the sunset.

“But I don’t know without having sat down with these individuals and if you think Stipe is going to be wicked forthcoming, then you’ve never met the man, so we’ll see how it all plays out.

“I just feel pretty convicted in saying that Tom Aspinall is going to realize financial freedom for his family, hopefully for generation, and just needs his opportunity. But man, it’s a tough world for a lot of these fighters. When you get very close to the top, sometimes you have to wait forever and sometimes you feel like it’s never going to come.”

Regardless of the result, and how things may go on Saturday night in the Big Apple, one thing is for sure: This fight can’t happen soon enough to get the heavyweight division, hopefully, moving in the right direction.

As Anik things about how things can play out, he has a tough time truly grasping how both guys can look after significant layoffs.

“Well, I don’t try to get too predictive in some part because I am a play-by-play announcer, but how do you really predict what you’re gonna see out of both of these athletes?,” Anik said. “The sample size for Jon Jones at heavyweight is small, and Stipe Miocic last competed against Francis Ngannou when he was 38 and he is now 42 years of age.

“Now, one thing I can tell you with sitting down with Stipe in a fighter meeting is that he’s done everything in his power to have the best cardiovascular base possible and put himself in the best position to win this fight. I do think it stands to reason if the fight is contested early on the feet that Stipe can land some shots and look better than whatever the betting line suggests he is. I mean, I was talking to some of my contemporaries, I think two years ago when this fight was first inked and I was like, ‘Man, Stipe a +290 against any man?’ And they’re just like, ‘Dude, he’s fighting Jon Jones who is not any man,’ and I guess that is true.

“And so I think Stipe at 42 is not like a handicapper’s dream, but what kind of training camp has preceded this fight for Stipe? What kind of training camp has Jon Jones had? I can’t wait to sit down with these two individuals in the fighter meeting. But yes, this fight needs to happen in the worst possible way. We need Nov. 16. We need clarity and finality and a result when it comes to these two absolute legends.”

JON JONES makes his grand return to the UFC this weekend for the first defence of his heavyweight title.

Jones, a bonafide UFC legend, is fighting in just his second fight at heavyweight fight since vacating the 205lbs title in the summer of 2020.

5

5

Advertisement

5

5

The 37-year-old claimed the vacant heavyweight crown last March with a two-minute demolition of Ciryl Gane at UFC 285.

And the Hall of Famer will make his first defence of the belt against former champion Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309 in New York City.

Former two-time champion Miocic will provide Jones with the toughest test of his brief heavyweight career.

But the Cleveland clubber hasn’t been in action for three-and-a-half years, following a brutal knockout defeat at the hands of Francis Ngannou in his last octagon outing.

Clashes with both Ngannou and current interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall have been touted for Jones should emerge from his first heavyweight title defence victorious.

But Miocic is up next, and it should be a cracker.

When is UFC 309?

• UFC 309: Jones vs Miocic will take place on Saturday, November 16.
• The early prelims will start a 11pm GMT, and the prelims will get going from 1am in the early hours of November 17.
• The main card begins at 3am with the main event likely to kick off closer to 5am.
• Madison Square Garden in New York will play host.

BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKERS

How to Watch UFC 309

The UFC makes it’s annual visit to New York City on November 16 for another blockbuster pay-per-view card.

UFC 309 will take place at the iconic Madison Square Garden, which provided some unforgettable moments since mixed martial arts was legalised in New York state in 2016.

Topping the bill at the ‘World’s Most Famous Arena’ is the eagerly-anticipated heavyweight title fight between champion Jon Jones and former titleholder Stipe Miocic.

And in the co-main event of the evening, Michael Chandler will throw down with former lightweight champion and fellow fan favourite Charles Oliveira.

Advertisement

UFC 309 is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated cards of what has been another massive year for MMA’s top promotion.

And fans in the UK and Ireland can watch all the action from what promises to be an incredible night at MSG live on TNT Sports Box Office.

The penultimate pay-per-view card of the year will be available to purchase for a mere £19.99.

UFC 309 will also be available to buy on Discovery+, EE TV, Prime Video, Virgin Media TV and Sky Sports.

Advertisement

And fight fans don’t need to subscribe to TNT Sports to buy the star-studded event.

Watch UFC 309: Jones v Miocic exclusively live on TNT Sports Box Office from 1am on Saturday 16 November.

For more info visit: tntsports.co.uk/boxoffice

UFC 309 stream and TV channel

• UFC 309 will be shown live on TNT Sports in the UK.
• You can live stream all the action from the Discovery+ app, which is available for download onto your mobile or tablet device.

UFC 309 full card

Jones’ clash against Miocic is the main event but elsewhere on the card, Charles Oliveira takes on Michael Chandler in an exciting lightweight contest.

Bo Nickal also takes a step up as he faces Paul Craig while UFC legend Chris Weidman faces Eryk Anders.

Main card

• Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic – for UFC Heavyweight Championship
• Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chandler
• Viviane Araujo vs. Karine Silva
• Bo Nickal vs. Paul Craig
• Chris Weidman vs. Eryk Anders

Preliminary card

• Nikita Krylov vs. Azamat Murzakanov
• Jonathan Martinez vs. Marcus McGhee
• Jim Miller vs. Damon Jackson

Early preliminary card

• Mickey Gall vs. Ramiz Brahimaj
• Bassil Hafez vs. Oban Elliott
• Veronica Hardy vs. Eduarda Moura

5

What’s been said?

When asked if he could call it a day after beating Miocic, Jones said: “You know I feel like I’ve been debating on whether I’m going to retire or not.

“I really don’t know if I’m going to retire or not. I feel like I’m basing a lot of whether I retire or not on my performance.”

Miocic said of potential retirement: “I think every fight, I’m always preparing for my last one.

“I always thought about retiring after my first UFC fight.

“I say that all the time. Who wants to get beat up for 10 weeks, 12 weeks, come back and do it again?

“I say that all the time. Who wants to get beat up for 10 weeks, 12 weeks, come back and do it again?

“I love what I do and it’s fun. So we’ll see but right now my task at hand is Jon. That’s all I care about. That’s what I’m thinking about.”