In a season dominated by the Premier League’s legal battles, the Football Association is about to get in on the act. Today it will begin prosecuting England’s most high-profile corruption case since Bruce Grobbelaar was acquitted of conspiring to fix five Premier League games, in two trials at Winchester crown court 27 years ago.
Lucas Paquetá is not facing criminal proceedings, but in professional terms the stakes are almost as high. The FA charge sheet sent to West Ham on 23 May last year, in which Paquetá was charged with four counts of spot-fixing and two of obstructing an FA investigation, is understood to have included the recommendation of a life ban if he is found guilty by the independent panel.
The FA alleges that Paquetá “directly sought to influence […] these matches by intentionally seeking to receive a card from the referee, for the improper purpose of affecting the betting market in order for one or more persons to profit from betting”.
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Paquetá denies wrongdoing and has withdrawn from the Brazil squad for World Cup qualifiers over the next 10 days against Colombia and Argentina in order to be available to give evidence. The 27-year-old’s career is on the line.
“Lucas is coping OK as he is innocent and believes he will be cleared, but this trial is the biggest game of his life,” a West Ham source said. “And the case has already been going on for two years. Top players have this ability to shut out the real world, and Lucas is definitely like that. He just wants to play football and spend time with his family.
“People have said the allegations have affected his form, but I don’t believe that. He has always been inconsistent at West Ham – unplayable one game, anonymous the next – and that has continued throughout the case. Being around him most days you really wouldn’t know his future is so uncertain.”
About 60 bets were placed on Paquetá to be shown a yellow card in four Premier League games in 2022 and 2023, which the FA alleges led to him being deliberately booked to make money for family and friends.
The high stakes for Paquetá contrast starkly with the modest sums involved. A source with knowledge of the FA’s investigation told the Guardian that one of the bets was for £7, with the highest £400.
West Ham have taken a huge financial hit because of the case. An £80m transfer to Manchester City for Paquetá had been agreed before the FA emailed West Ham on 16 August 2023 to inform them it had opened an investigation into suspicious betting patterns surrounding bookings the player had received in the previous nine months. West Ham passed the information to City, who pulled out of the transfer without giving a public explanation, surprise at which led to the reason emerging two days later.
The spark for the FA investigation was a booking Paquetá had received in the 93rd minute at Bournemouth on 12 August for handling the ball in an aerial challenge with the defender James Hill, the fourth foul he had conceded. The referee Peter Bankes’s report noted that he had booked Paquetá for “persistent infringement”, which along with the number of bets placed on him to be cautioned was enough to trigger a formal probe.
The FA opened an investigation on 14 August. Paquetá immediately and vehemently denied wrongdoing, and any knowledge of bets placed on him to be booked.
An element of Paquetá’s defence is believed to revolve around his claim that he asked the then West Ham manager, David Moyes, not to play him at Bournemouth for fear of jeopardising the City move, which his legal team will use to cast doubt on the FA’s claim that he was part of a conspiracy to get booked.
“Lucas made it clear he didn’t want to play against Bournemouth,” a source close to the player told the Guardian. “He didn’t refuse, but spoke to Moyes, who indicated he would substitute him as early as possible if the game was safe. If you watch the game back Lucas is looking over at the touchline from the 70th minute onwards, signalling he wants to come off, but was kept on and was eventually booked in injury time. But why would he leave it so late if it was part of the plan all along?”
Sports integrity officers outside the FA had been quietly building a case against Paquetá for months. The initial investigation was conducted by the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), which received an integrity alert after several bookmakers in Brazil reported an unusual number of bets on Paquetá to be booked during West Ham’s Premier League game against Aston Villa the previous season, on 12 March. He was shown a yellow card with 20 minutes left for a late challenge on John McGinn, the only card of the game.
The majority of the suspicious bets were traced to Paquetá Island, an idyllic, 0.5sq mile beach paradise off the coast of Rio de Janiero, where the Brazilian was born and from which he takes his name. From a young age Paquetá undertook an epic trek to training on the mainland involving a bicycle, boat and several buses, because there is only one grass pitch on the island, where cars are prohibited.
Most of the money staked on Paquetá to be booked used accounts with Betway, which is West Ham’s shirt sponsor and was the first bookmaker to alert the IBIA. The concern of integrity officials was heightened by the fact most of the money came from new accounts.
Bookmakers employ integrity experts who monitor global betting patterns to ensure there is a fair market. Some concerns about the Paquetá yellow card market had even been flagged internally at Betway before the Villa game because of a major fall in the price, which collapsed to 8-11 before kick-off from about 5-1 earlier in the week.
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With a red flag raised over Paquetá IBIA officials began a retrospective sweep of betting activity surrounding his bookings, and reported at least one case of allegedly suspicious betting patterns. IBIA investigators discovered that a yellow card shown to Paquetá for a foul on Leicester’s Boubakary Soumaré in November 2022 had attracted an unusually large volume of bets, and continued to monitor future Paquetá markets closely.
A booking Paquetá received for pulling Leeds’ Dutch winger Crysencio Summerville, now a West Ham teammate, in May 2023 was also deemed suspicious. Analysis of the betting activity in Brazil by IBIA showed that many of the bets were placed using accounts linked to members of the Paquetá family, including his uncle, Bruno Tolentino.
Paquetá has cooperated fully with the FA throughout the investigation, handing over phone records, bank statements and his mobile. He was interviewed formally in October 2023 before being charged with four breaches of FA Rule E5 and two of Rule E3. One of the alleged Rule E3 breaches in relation to failure to cooperate is understood to be based on the fact that Paquetá threw away his old mobile after it had been returned to him by the FA, because he had bought a new handset in the interim.
“I am extremely surprised and upset that the FA has decided to charge me,” Paquetá said in a statement after being charged, his only public comments on the case. “For nine months I have cooperated with every step of their investigation and provided all the information I can. I deny the charges in their entirety and will fight with every breath to clear my name. Due to the ongoing process, I will not be providing any further comment.” The FA and West Ham have declined to comment on the case throughout.
Paquetá’s defence is being led by Nick De Marco KC, a leading sports lawyer who achieved a notable victory last season when helping Leicester to challenge the Premier League’s right to charge them with breaching profitability and sustainability rules. He also represented Ivan Toney when the striker was charged with 262 charges of FA betting rules, which led to Toney being given an eight-month ban from football.
Toney’s sentence could be used as a precedent for a lighter punishment than that being demanded by the FA if Paquetá is found guilty, but he is insistent upon proving his innocence. The former Flamengo, Milan and Lyon midfield player is adamant he knows nothing about any of the bets placed on him, and that the FA’s evidence is circumstantial.
Much of the case against Paquetá is based on betting numbers and so is part of his defence. West Ham are understood to have produced betting data showing that Paquetá frequently attracts a statistically unusual volume of bets to be booked, which they attribute to his poor disciplinary record. Paquetá’s defence team also have access to his entire disciplinary history, which is believed to show that he has consistently conceded more free-kicks than his teammates throughout his career, increasing the chances of him being booked.
West Ham have backed Paquetá throughout and are confident he will be cleared, but do have concerns about the lower threshold of proof required in FA disciplinary cases. Whereas criminal trials such as Grobbelaar’s require juries to be convinced of a defendant’s guilt “beyond reasonable doubt,” the independent panel will be asked to reach a verdict based on “the balance of probabilities”.
Despite his inconsistency on the pitch Paquetá is regarded as one of West Ham’s best trainers and his only real interests are football and family, with several sources mentioning his devotion to his two young sons, Benicio and Filipo. For all his employers’ frustration at the case, and the potential erosion of an £80m asset on their balance sheet, Paquetá remains a hugely popular figure at West Ham, where there will be surprise and devastation if he is found guilty.
