West Ham player Lucas Paquetá is being investigated by the English Football Association (FA – Football Association) on suspicion of involvement in sports betting.
A supposedly forced yellow card in a game last season barred his call-up for the first games of the Brazilian national team in the World Cup Qualifiers and still blocked his possible transfer to Manchester City.
However, he acted and even scored last Sunday, the 20th, in West Ham’s 3-1 victory over Chelsea. According to R7, there is no mechanism in the rules that requires the suspension of an investigated player.
In Brazil, the athletes investigated by the Maximum Penalty Operation of the MPGO (Public Ministry of Goiás) were preventively removed by the STJD (Supreme Court of Sports Justice). Some players have even been punished with fines, suspensions and bans.
Paquetá’s alleged involvement with sports betting
On March 12, an unusual number of bets were detected in the region of Paquetá Island — where Lucas was born —, in Rio de Janeiro, for the player to take a yellow card in the match between West Ham and Aston Villa, which ended in a draw. in 1 to 1.
At 25 minutes of the second half, the Brazilian stopped a move with a strong tackle from behind. He was cautioned with a yellow card. In the same match, he made four fouls, an athlete record in the last Premier League.
The sports betting company, Betway, sponsor of the club defended by Paquetá, noticed this strange movement in betting.
According to the Daily Mail, the fact that many new account owners bet the maximum amount on the Brazilian player’s warning triggered the alert at the bookmaker, who informed the FA.
Another Brazilian investigated
These inquiries led to the alleged involvement of another Brazilian: Luiz Henrique, from Spain’s Betis, who was cut from Ramon Menezes’ Olympic squad for the same reason as Lucas in the first team.
On the same day that Paquetá received a yellow card, Luiz Henrique was cautioned in a match for the Spanish championship. Combined bets for both players to be punished, something unusual, was one of the starting points of the investigation.
Since 2014, anyone involved with English football has been banned from betting, directly or indirectly, on any sporting event around the world.
“A participant shall not bet, directly or indirectly, or instruct, permit, cause or enable any person to bet on the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of, or occurrence in, or in connection with, a football match or competition. ”, says one of the rules in the “betting” section of the FA handbook.
The case of Paquetá can also be considered a “privileged information” thing, which happens when an individual who has a position within the clubs, for example, passes on to a third party relevant and non-public information about something that can be bet.
So far, Paquetá is only investigated and can be scheduled normally by coach David Moyes. According to the English media, the athlete was “shocked” to receive the news and denies the accusations.
Out of the Brazilian national team
The investigation of the allegedly involved in sports betting was commented on by the coach of the Brazilian national team, Fernando Diniz. The coach chose to preserve the player for the moment.
“Paquetá was on the list. He’s a player I like a lot. It’s a question of preservation, letting him resolve these issues, which go beyond the game. Make him more comfortable solving them. We had these problems here in Brazil. This needs to be done. of the time factor for things to clear up,” he declared.
