After being cleared of four counts of match fixing back in July, Lucas Paqueta is considering suing the Football Association over his two-year ordeal.
The Brazilian’s legal team is ‘considering all options’, after the FA’s investigation – which began as far back as August 2023 – ultimately came to nothing.
And it has also been reported that West Ham could take legal action against the governing body. The Hammers missed out on a sizable payday when Paqueta’s proposed move to Manchester City fell through in the wake of the allegations.
It could prove very costly for the Football Association in what has proven to be amongst the most controversial and bizarre legal cases that the modern game has seen.
Under Fire
After conducting their own investigation into Paqueta’s alleged involvement in a betting scam, the Football Association called in an Independent Regulatory Commission to determine the outcome of the case.
They had initially charged the 28-year-old with four counts of alleged ‘spot fixing’, which relates to four yellow cards that Paqueta received in Premier League games between November 2022 and August 2023.
The nature of those cautions raised a few eyebrows… and even more so when suspicious betting patterns were identified as far away as Paqueta Island, a small body of land off the coast of Brazil where some of the players family and friends reside.
However, the Independent Commission cleared Paqueta of all charges, before hitting out at the FA for not calling upon external industry experts to examine the data presented by the bookmakers that took the alleged suspicious bets.
The commission called upon key staff at the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) when examining the case, with the IBIA’s director, Matthew Fowler, stating:
“Whilst IBIA found the activity [the yellow cards] to be clearly unusual and irregular, the profile of [Paqueta] as a Premier League player – who is reportedly in receipt of a large salary – didn’t fit the profile of a suspicious player.”
However, the IBIA did detect suspicious betting activity in Brazil with regards to another of the bookings highlighted in the case, which came against Bournemouth in August 2023.
Six bookmakers revealed that customers with newly opened accounts – or reviving previously dormant accounts – had placed wagers on Paqueta to be booked in the game against the Cherries, as well as existing customers showcasing ‘abnormally high levels of confidence’ in their staking.
It was alleged by the FA that 253 different punters – including 26 known to Paqueta personally – had wagered on him to get booked in the four games in question. The total amount bet was just shy of £47,000, with a profit of around £167,000 realised.
Bookings Were Not Spot Fixing
As the Independent Commission began gathering evidence, they heard from impartial experts that Paqueta’s yellow cards were ‘inconsistent with spot fixing’, due to the perceived lack of orchestration on his part.
Further evidence revealed that the player had asked his then West Ham boss, David Moyes, not to be picked for the game against Bournemouth – according to numerous quoted sources, that was to ensure that he didn’t get injured and jeopardise his proposed move to Manchester City.
The commission also found that the FA’s betting data was ‘limited in scope’, particularly with reference to the Brazilian market, where they had collected data from just 32% of betting sites in the jurisdiction.
In a dossier weighing in at more than 300 pages in length, the independent commission panned the Football Association’s handling of the case, highlight ‘substantial flaws’ in their investigation, evidence gathering and conclusions made.
Obvious Flaw
The commission concluded that the FA’s reliance on circumstantial evidence in the case was an ‘obvious flaw’.
They also took on board the evidence supplied by former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg, who claimed that two of the four yellow cards shown to Paqueta were unjustified.
Having found ‘nothing in Paqueta’s on-field conduct’ to suggest he was part of an orchestrated gambling scam, the commission cleared the Brazilian of all charges.
He will, however, be sanctioned after two breaches of FA’s Rule F3 – which relate to a failure to assist the governing body with their enquiries – were proven.
It’s now possible that Paqueta and/or West Ham will sue the FA; the player over the emotional distress caused, as well as for the £1 million in legal costs he accrued.
The Hammers, meanwhile, could sue for financial loss after his proposed transfer to Man City – it has been reported that the ‘deal was done’ – collapsed in the wake of the allegations.
Paqueta, who wasn’t required to stop playing even during the investigation, scored in West Ham’s 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest in August, and found the net on his recall to the Brazilian national team this month.