Paqueta could sue FA after spot-fixing acquittal

After being found guilty of spot-fixing, West Ham midfielder Lucas Paqueta is considering filing a lawsuit against the Football Association.

The 28-year-old’s attorneys are currently “considering all options,” according to sources close to the player who spoke to BBC Sport.

The Brazilian was accused by the FA in May 2024 of allegedly getting booked purposefully to “affect the betting market.”

In July 2025, an independent commission uncovered Paqueta on four counts of allegedly fixing the truth.

On Wednesday, the FA’s decision to not rely on outsider expertise on the crucial field of betting data was met with written arguments based on the commission’s findings.

The FA is currently being investigated by Paqueta’s legal team, who is now examining the case and considering all options.

Nine months before the Brazilian was eventually charged, the FA’s investigation into Paqueta began in August of 2023.

The Brazilian’s £80 million move to Manchester City was halted by the investigation’s announcement.

The commission noted that West Ham and Paqueta would have “received substantial sums amounting to the tens of millions of pounds” and that both the player and West Ham “reserve all of their rights in that regard.”

Details of the case were provided in a 314-page document created by Sports Resolutions, an independent and nonprofit dispute resolution service.

The commission’s written findings cover a variety of information, from former West Ham manager David Moyes’ views on the yellow cards to conversations Paqueta’s mother Cristiane had with in a Brazilian salon.

The FA claimed 542 bets totalling £46, 758.83 were staked by 253 different bettors with a collective return of £213, 703.81, reflecting a net profit of £166, 944.98.

However, the commission acknowledged that the FA’s case relied “entirely on circumstantial evidence” and that Tom Astley, a betting integrity investigator, chose to provide evidence based on the betting data from one of its own employees was an “oddity” and an “obvious flaw.”

In the written findings, the commission stated that “in the commission’s view, it simply did not call independent expert evidence on what the FA has accepted was the most important element of its case.”

Instead, it relies on the testimony of its integrity investigator and requests that the commission acknowledge that the commission has demonstrated the level of impartiality that an independent expert would demand.

Astley claimed in his testimony that Paqueta betting “appears to be highly orchestrated.”

The commission claimed that Astley’s legal representative later disapproved of the FA’s assessment and was “thin abandoning its case on orchestration without further explanation.”

Paqueta maintained that he only had a real relationship with five of the 253 bettors, despite the FA claiming that 27 of the 253 could be related to the player.

He claimed that he only spoke to the five occasionally and that he only spoke about football occasionally.

The commission came to the conclusion that a look at the betting data was not “illustrative of a spot-fix” and that it was “in many ways inconsistent with a spot-fix, but consistent with alternative explanations.”

“I’m still happy for my client Lucas, who has been cleared of all the serious charges of spot-fixing,” said Nick de Marco, a member of Paqueta’s legal team.

Former West Ham manager Moyes, who is currently in charge of Everton, and former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg gave evidence on Paqueta’s behalf.

Moyes claimed that he had closely examined the yellow card incidents and that they were entirely within this player’s normal range of actions.

Clattenburg argued that two of the four yellow cards should not have been shown in support of the FA’s case and that Stats Perform Integrity Services (SPIS)’ findings were in conflict with their findings.

Each challenge falls squarely within the purview of multiple events occurring simultaneously in each match, both individually and together, according to Clottenburg.

Nothing about Paqueta’s on-field behavior, according to the commission, supported the FA’s claim that he had purposefully attempted to be booked for any of the four games.

The FA found that Paqueta’s defense was making a significant case for the player because it was able to identify one single piece of data from either player’s mobile phones that even mentioned gambling or had any connection to one of the four games related to the charges.

The FA accepted that it was impossible to establish Paqueta’s intention to delete any messages or contacts.

No spot-fixing was used to recover more than 300 deleted messages, none of which had anything to do with it.