West Ham United midfielder Lucas Paqueta has been found guilty of two breaches of FA Rule rules and warned about his future conduct for his failure to comply with a Football Association investigation into allegations of spot-fixing.
In July, an independent regulatory commission the Brazilian International that he deliberately got booked in four separate matches in 2022 and 2023 “for the improper purpose of affecting the betting market”.
Paqueta gave “no comment” answers to the majority of questions in two FA interviews during the investigation, both of which took place before he was charged.
As a result, he was found guilty of two breaches of FA Rule F3, a requirement to answer questions and provide information to the FA’s investigation into breaches of the rule.
The independent commission said: “it accepted that the player was acting on advice at all times but, nevertheless, as a participant he has an obligation to respect and abide by the regulations”.
Despite finding Paqueta guilty, they decided not to impose a fine. They said there were several mitigating factors that led them to take this decision, among them was Paqueta’s “limited knowledge of English” and it being “fanciful” to expect the player, with no legal training, to do anything other than follow the advice of the leading counsel appointed by his club.
They added: “We recognise that an element of the mental stress suffered by the player included his realisation that, had the [spot-fixing] charges been found proved, his footballing career would almost certainly have come to an end,” said the commission.”
Paqueta joined West Ham on 29 August 2022, for a club record fee undisclosed by the club. He signed a five-year contract for a fee estimated to be more than £50m with additional add-ons, beating the fee paid for Sebastian Haller in 2019.
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