The newspaper’s presentation of their interview with the referee undeniably brings in clicks. But who else does it help?

“I didn’t want to stand out from the crowd. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself.” Fair points, there, from David Coote. Or as he must now apparently be described, cocaine ref David Coote, shamed ref David Coote, sacked ref David Coote and, because some kind of equivalence is being drawn, gay ref David Coote.

At the same time these statements from Coote’s interview with the Sun newspaper raise some equally important questions. First, given this, why did David Coote decide to do an interview with the Sun newspaper that serves no obvious purpose other to out himself as a gay man?

• Teenager was due to serve three-game suspension
• Oliver will not referee Arsenal v Manchester City

Arsenal have won their appeal against Myles Lewis-Skelly’s red card at Wolves, with the Football Association confirming that an independent regulatory commission had “upheld the claim of wrongful dismissal” and removed his three-match ban.

The 18-year-old was shown a straight red card by the referee Michael Oliver in the first half of Arsenal’s 1-0 win after bringing down Matt Doherty in his own half, becoming the third-youngest player to be dismissed in Premier League history. Mikel Arteta said he was “absolutely fuming” with the decision, which was checked and confirmed by the video assistant referee, Darren England.

• RA chair insists sacked Coote ‘has so much to offer’
• Former referee remains highly regarded in Europe

David Coote “deserves” to have a continued role in English football, the chair of the Referees’ Association has said.

Coote’s contract as an elite ­referee with Professional Game Match ­Officials Limited (PGMOL) was ­terminated last month after a video emerged showing him ­making ­derogatory comments about ­Liverpool and their former manager Jürgen Klopp. A separate video also showed Coote taking cocaine.