West Ham United midfielder Lucas Paqueta finds himself at the centre of a storm, with the FA pushing for a potential lifetime ban over spot-fixing allegations. This casts a dark cloud over his future at the club and creates a major headache for the Hammers.
Football finance expert Kieran Plumley suggests West Ham could take legal action against Paqueta for a breach of contract, but this hinges on the specifics of his contract. The severity of any potential ban, particularly a lifetime suspension, would significantly influence the club’s legal options.
Paqueta was previously linked to a lucrative move to Manchester City, but those talks have collapsed in the wake of the charges. West Ham, likely anticipating Paqueta’s departure, were presumably planning to capitalize on his £85 million release clause. Both the transfer revenue and the player’s talent are now lost to the club.
Even if Paqueta avoids an immediate suspension, playing a full season seems highly unlikely. The seriousness of the charges compared to similar betting-related cases (involving Ivan Toney and Sandro Tonali) suggests a possible ban is forthcoming.
West Ham must now prepare for the possibility of being without Paqueta for a significant period. This necessitates scouting and potentially acquiring midfield alternatives to address the potential gap in their squad.
Overall, the FA’s pursuit of a ban against Paqueta throws West Ham’s plans into disarray. Potential legal action, lost transfer revenue, and a weakened midfield are just some of the issues the club now faces.
I thought there was doubt about Paqueta’s guilt or otherwise. The fact the FA would have been sued by his legal team had he not been charged, the small amounts of money involved, the rumour that he requested not to play in the Bournemouth game, on which bets were placed. All casts an element of doubt.
Your article has the hallmarks of an old fashioned lynch mob.
Innocent until proven guilty?
I think that his lawyers should press to get the case heard, on a put up a case or I sue for multi millions.
The reason the FA actually charged him is because his legal team threatened to sue. If they had not done so and bided there time letting the investigation continue, that’s all that would have happened until there was conclusive proof one way or the other. In threatening to sue, they have actually caused the FA to act and caused this situation. They told the FA to either charge him or drop the the case, in the hope the FA would drop it – allowing his team to pursue the Man City transfer. But they actually shot themselves in the foot, as that forced the FA to charge him. Once he was charged, it is taken out of the hands of the FA meaning they cannot be sued. The case then gets referred to a panel who will investigate, allowing all parties to present their evidence, and then make a ruling on their findings. This creates other issues around the investigation as well. The panel only has to vote 51% to 49% to find him innocent or guilty. If they had left it alone and let the FA investigate, they would have had to have proven him 99% innocent or guilty to make a ruling. EIther way, it now becomes a lot easier for him to be found guilty, but on the other side of that a lot easier to be found innocent too. In the case of the FA investigating, the onus was on them to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt ie. 99%. So this constant speculation around it is all very well, but the actual facts speak for themselves!
Paqueta is innocent how on earth could he know that people bet on him getting booked at a certain time in a match and even more important was he wearing a watch to check the time and say right I have 5 seconds to get myself booked, and he soesnt decide if he gets booked the ref does, maybe the fa should be looking at the referee maybe he is on the take, just how many dodgy refereeing decisions have there been over the last season.?
I’m quite positive about Paq’s situation, he is innocent until proven guilty. Especially after the Brazil FA and indeed FIFA have had a look at it and it’s been dropped them so we’ll see how it unfolds.