As the whole world and its dog now knows, West Ham United midfielder Lucas Paqueta ihas found himself in more than a bit of bother. The FA has charged him with spot-fixing, a far graver offence than recent high-profile betting cases involving Premier League players.
Unlike previous cases where players were punished for placing bets (not on their own team to lose), Paqueta is accused of deliberately getting booked to influence betting markets. This directly affects the game itself, raising serious concerns about fair play. Sports lawyer Dan Chapman of Leathes Prior emphasises the severity: “Spot-fixing undermines the integrity of the sport and is a blatant attempt to cheat.”
The potential consequences are dire. FA guidelines suggest a lifetime ban as the starting point for such offenses. This is a significant escalation compared to previous suspensions (e.g., Kynan Isaac – 10 years, Bradley Wood – 5 years).
It’s important to remember that Paqueta maintains his innocence and is expected to cooperate with the investigation. He will more than likely have strong legal representation to fight the charges.
The investigation’s outcome remains unknown, but the stakes are incredibly high. A guilty verdict could effectively end Paqueta’s career. This case serves as a stark warning about the importance of fair play and the devastating consequences of manipulating matches. The footballing world will be closely following this unfolding story.
Surely what overrides anything the FA do ,is a police investigation? What Paqueta has allegedly done ,is fraud ,so why aren’t the police involved? The FA can charge him, but I’m sure the police would be banging on the door asking for any evidence,so that they could do the same, no? Fraud trumps football, police trump Fa
Have many ways can you keep recycling this story?!
He’d have to be a special sort of stupid to have got booked just at that a few mates could earn from it.
One of the bookings was 93 minutes….why would he have waited so long if this was his intention.
Hopefully the FA have charged him just to take the Sri g out of his lawsuit against them.
Let’s support our west ham players in times off difficulty! He is after all allowed a fair chance to prove his innocence.Hes innocent until proven guilty and I hope all the fans get behind him and show him how much he’s loved at our club.Then hopefully he will repay us in spades on the pitch for years to come.COYI
I often wondered why he went to ground rolling around so easily, seeing the replays in most cases he wasn’t even touched. it was embarassing to watch.
True, but I don’t think he has been accused of trying to get other players yellow carded, has he?
Do the FA have statement evidence from anyone in Brazil who benefitted from this alleged action? If they don’t then how can a conviction on all four counts be classed as safe. Unless its a civil test of probabilities then he might just have a problem, hopefully a decent brief will sort it out for him, but don’t hold your breathe.
If he is innocent which I believe he is then it should be cleared up quickly however if the FA have evidence that could result in a guilty verdict then I believe that would be the end of his career should as it seems it will go to a trial of some sort just hope he isn’t suspended while it’s on going preventing from playing which I would expect to happen let’s hope it gets cleared up soon and things can get back to normal
The bets were placed on an island called Pacqueta island in Brazil where he originates from. He’s definitely not innocent.
IMHO football, ie FIFA, EUFA, The FA et al, are corrupt from top to bottom. Games are regularly fixed, and even the use of VAR doesn’t help with very obvious wrong decisions being regularly made. This is a very poor attempt to “make an example” of somebody to prove the “integrity” of The FA. To me it is all nonsense, hypocritical BS. Football is fu***d from top to bottom and left to right, has been for years. Too much money involved for it not to be.
Evidence please?
A FIFA world cup held in Qatar.
Don’t think so?
He will carry on playing for us until the verdict, followed by the outcome of FA, court and CAS appeals. Given the tardy nature of these things – the FA were within days of running out of time to bring charges, which is why they had to do it now – we could well be close to the end of his contract by the time any ban is ratified. If he plays the legal game like Donald Trump, he could be retired before the final outcome.
In the meantime, we didn’t want to sell him, and now we can’t.
It will all come out in the wash
It depends on whether there’s hard evidence linking the yellow cards to the gambling industry claims of unusual betting patterns. The charges on their own do not mean such evidence exists as the FAs options were to charge or to drop the case with charging appearing far more robust. To drop the matter also meant the FA having the final say something they were able to avoid by charging regardless of whatever evidence there was or wasn’t which passed the final say onto the independent tribunal. The charges themselves mean little, the existence or non existence of evidence linking the cards with the gambling industry claims means everything.
From what I understand the FA do NOT have to prove “beyond all reasonable doubt” to ban him, they can rely on circumstantial evidence, such as extreme abnormalities in betting markets (let’s face it, a tiny island off the coast of South American don’t just all wake up one day and decide to bet on yellow card markets JUST by chance!) That might not be the same for any criminal proceedings however, where I expect they have to have hard proof.
I’m afraid he’s toast let himself the club and his loyal fan base