English football governing body faces serious scrutiny after 314-page report clears midfielder and highlights major flaws in the case
The English Football Association (FA) has been heavily criticised by the independent commission that cleared Lucas Paqueta of spot-fixing allegations, with its case described as flawed and lacking independent scrutiny of betting data.
A 314-page judgment published by the commission concluded there was no evidence the West Ham midfielder was involved in a conspiracy to deliberately receive yellow cards.
Instead, the panel suggested unusual betting activity around his bookings was more likely the result of tips being passed informally among gamblers in Brazil.
Paqueta had been charged in May 2024 with four counts of spot-fixing, following a 10-month investigation into bookings he collected in Premier League games across the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.
The FA linked him to 27 of the 253 people who placed bets on him to be booked, wagers totalling £47,000 and yielding £167,000 in profit.
But the commission concluded that the governing body had failed to substantiate its case. It criticised the FA’s reliance on internal analysis rather than an independent review of betting data, calling the omission “an obvious flaw”.
It also questioned the credibility of the FA’s integrity investigator and main witness Tom Astley, noting that his description of the betting patterns as “highly orchestrated” was contradicted by the FA’s own lead prosecutor.
“The clear appearance given to the commission was that the FA was not altogether certain what case it was presenting against the player,” the report said.
While Paqueta was cleared of fixing, he has been found guilty of two lesser charges of failing to fully cooperate with the investigation. The commission revealed that after initially declining to answer some questions due to legal advice he had received, Paqueta later offered to meet investigators again, only for the FA to decline.
The commission said it was surprised that, at what was still an investigation stage of the case, “the FA were apparently not interested in what the player had to say”.
Paqueta, who joined West Ham in 2022, faced the prospect of a career-threatening ban had the charges been upheld. His lawyer, Alastair Campbell, said the verdict has vindicated the player.
Campbell said: “The evidence not only showed he has no interest in gambling whatsoever, but confirmed that his integrity as both a player and a person is beyond doubt.”
