Paqueta’s enquiry and the impact upon West Ham’s dressing room morale
Three weeks seems an incredible amount of time put aside by the FA for Lucas Paquetá’s spot-fixing hearing. The three-man inquiry will start ‘this month’ as we confirmed last night from news first broken on Sky Sports: Paquetá faces a life time ban from football if he is found guilty.
The Brazilian Hammer has been facing these allegations for well over a year and his West Ham form has seen both extremes.
Quite how this will affect the West Ham dressing room is difficult to gauge. Potter’s predecessor, Julen Lopetegui, was on record as ‘declining to discuss’ the case with his midfielder: I suspect Graham Potter, as with all other areas of his coaching, has a more joined-up strategy in place to deal with the fall-out from the hearing. His work to maintain the positive dressing room spirit that’s grown since his arrival will be crucial for the rest of West Ham’s season.
The international break runs from March 17th – 25th so the hearing is most likely to impact Paquetá’s ability to perform for his country. If he is fit, Paquetá could be in line for an appearance at London Stadium against Newcastle on Monday night with thousands of fans worrying about ‘the unthinkable’. Dark days indeed.
Important to stress that Lucas Paquetá strongly denies all of the allegations and has always maintained that he will clear his name at the hearing.
I’m amazed this investigation has taken so long so far and then 3 weeks judge what the investigation has presented as evidence . Surely you’ve got to have some convincing factual evidence otherwise the 3man panel we be left open to counter claims from the players legal team and the club .
At the tribunal the level of proof is on the balance of probability.
Once appealed to the Court for Arbitration in Sport in the case of a lifetime ban it would be close to the criminal level of proof of beyond reasonable doubt.
Two very different propositions.
Fear the worst and anything else is a bonus. I suspect the FA are making this a special case. They love to pick on little West Ham, as it makes them look powerful and important! We are the ideal target as we are not a big six club, so we can’t make any waves when we get kicked.