Lucas Paqueta, the West Ham United Brazilian midfielder, has been exonerated of spot-fixing allegations. The Football Association (FA) carried out an independent and exhaustive investigation and found no basis for his guilt. The investigation looked at four particular cases. In these games against Leicester City, Aston Villa, Leeds United and Bournemouth, Paqueta was shown yellow cards.
And the FA’s subsequent investigation cleared Paqueta, finding no evidence that he had spot-fixed. Despite these allegations against his behavior within these games, he was found to have done nothing wrong. To that end, he had maintained his insistence that he had done nothing wrong throughout the entire process.
Our investigation showed that Paqueta was booked with two yellow cards in rapid sequence. He had been disputing the decision with official Darren England on the pitch. This particular incident took place during a recent game against Liverpool. He was already returning from a one-game suspension after accumulating five yellow cards earlier in the season. His second yellow card in that match doomed West Ham to a 2-0 loss to Liverpool. The team was already on the ropes, losing 1-0 at the time of his firing.
Paqueta was certainly contrite about his conduct on the pitch. He went on to apologize to West Ham United and recognize the damage his actions could do to the performance of the team.
“Since the first day of this investigation, I have maintained my innocence against these extremely serious accusations.” – Lucas Paqueta
He criticized the FA for their handling of the situation, stating, “It’s ridiculous to have your life and career affected for two years without any psychological support from the federation.” This statement demonstrates the emotional toll that this public, multi-year investigation has had on him.
West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo dodged questions about Paqueta’s red card immediately after the game against Liverpool. So he decided to completely hold his fire for the time being. He expressed an intention to get a sense of the player’s side of things before commenting.
“I want to speak to him first and try to understand. It’s unfair to make a comment without speaking to him.” – Nuno Espirito Santo
Leave a Reply