LONDON — The English Football Association has launched its own investigation after a video, widely shared on social media, appears to show a Premier League referee making offensive comments about former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.

David Coote has been suspended by English referees’ governing body, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), which is also investigating.

“We are aware of the matter and are investigating it,” a spokesman for the English FA told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

In the video, a person who appears to be Coote repeatedly uses an expletive when describing Klopp, adding that he did not want to speak to someone who was “arrogant”.

It has not been confirmed whether the footage was tampered with, but PGMOL is treating it as if it were genuine, a person familiar with its investigation told the AP.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment.

Professor Hany Farid of the University of California, Berkeley, specializes in digital forensics and said there was no evidence the video was a deepfake.

He analyzed the video using models trained to distinguish real voices and faces from AI-generated ones.

“This model finds no evidence of AI generation,” he said, adding that “there are no obvious visual artifacts in the video to suggest it is AI-generated.”

Klopp left Liverpool at the end of last season and was replaced by Dutch coach Arne Slot.