Referee David Coote was suspended by the PGMOL on November 11 (Image: Getty)
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) have been advised to consider introducing drug tests for officials following the recent controversy involving
Coote was suspended with immediate effect by the PGMOL on November 11. The refereeing body are carrying out an investigation into his conduct, after he was filmed making derogatory comments about former boss .
In addition, another leaked video online appeared to show the 42-year-old
The FA and UEFA have also launched separate probes into Coote. He is yet to directly address the white powder video.
Whether or not Coote is found to have taken a recreational drug it has brought the issue into focus and
And retired top-flight official Jeff Winter believes the saga could be the catalyst for referees to be drug tested in the future.
“In refereeing, the PGMOL have got far bigger issues with how games are being controlled and how decisions are being inconsistently made than the problem with possibly a referee taking a recreational drug,” Winter told Express Sport, speaking on behalf of FreeBets.com.
“Before long, it [drug testing] will become part of testing that referees have to undergo. I presume players get tested regularly, and if they do, why shouldn’t referees? They’re on the same pitch, they’re all involved in the same game.”
PGMOL chief Howard Webb is not planning to introduce drug testing (Image: Getty)
Despite Winter’s prediction, it is understood the PGMOL do not have any current plans to introduce drug tests for the more than 600 referees they manage across the , EFL, Women’s Super League and National League.
Winter oversaw 185 games in his career before hanging up his whistle in 2004. In all of that time, neither he nor his officials were drug tested.
But the Middlesbrough native believes that the rise of drugs is a more urgent problem across football and referees may need to take the lead in proving they are clean as the sport’s arbitrators.
“We had fitness tests and blood pressure taken. I’m not saying it was a different generation – it was in terms of years – but I wasn’t certainly aware of the prevalence of drug-taking [during my career],” he added.
Jeff Winter was a Premier League between 1993 and 2004 (Image: Getty)
“I hear now with fans, there’s a lot of toilets at football grounds under scrutiny because apparently that’s what they do at half-time. In my time, somebody might’ve had a cigarette.
“I was never drug-tested. It’s a sad thing to come out of this… all of a sudden, these AI videos, I get confused over what’s true and what isn’t.
“But if this particular referee was taking recreational drugs, that doesn’t mean every referee is taking recreational drugs. He might be the only one, I don’t know if he did indeed take them.
“As to whether it’s going to do any harm, so that the game can hold its hands up and say ‘we are clean, we are not doing this’, then it’s probably not [going to do harm].”