Lucas Paqueta considers suing the FA over failed Man City move | OneFootball

Lucas Paqueta could sue the Football Association over the “immeasurable loss” that resulted from his failed move to Manchester City following the conclusion of his spot-fixing case.

An independent commission cleared Paqueta of four charges in July after it had been alleged that the West Ham midfielder deliberately attempted to receive a card in four Premier League games between November 2022 and August 2023 "for the improper purpose of affecting the betting market".

The FA started its investigation in August 2023, which led to a proposed £80m move to Man City to collapse as he faced a potential four-year ban, had the charges been proven.

Alastair Campbell, a partner at the law firm Level and the head of Paqueta’s legal team, says “nothing is off the table” after the FA confirmed it will not appeal the verdict of the independent commission.

“It’s something we’re talking to Lucas about and it’s under consideration,” Campbell told Sky Sports regarding the possibility of Paqueta suing the FA.

“He wants to focus on his football now. He’s spent enough time talking to lawyers. We don’t know for sure what’s on the cards at the moment.

“I would advise him to think seriously about that (suing the FA) as an option. What he’s lost is immeasurable in financial terms. If you look at where his career could have gone, how close he was to moving to Manchester City, who then went on to win the Premier League that year, that is a very considerable loss to him, so he will think about it closely.”

The written reasons for the commission’s decisions in the case were published on Wednesday afternoon.

open image in gallery

The FA will not appeal against the ruling in Lucas Paqueta’s spot-fixing case (Mike Egerton/PA) (PA Wire)

The FA said 253 separate bettors placed bets on Paqueta being yellow-carded over the four matches, and the FA said 27 could be linked to the player.

Paqueta maintained he only had a real relationship with five of the people. He said he did not speak to the five regularly, and even then, rarely about football.

The FA said the 253 bettors laid stakes of £47,000 and made a profit of £167,000.

However, the commission concluded that an analysis of the betting data was not “illustrative of a spot-fix”.

The commission added: “Rather, in the commission’s view, it is in many respects inconsistent with a spot-fix, but consistent with alternative explanations.”

open image in gallery

The commission concluded that an analysis of the betting data was not “illustrative of a spot-fix” (PA Archive)

The commission concluded there was “nothing in Paqueta’s on-field conduct” which advanced the FA’s case that he had deliberately sought to be booked in any of the four games.

The commission found the FA’s inability to locate one item of data from either of the player’s mobile phones that even mentioned betting or had any connection to one of the four games related to the charges was a significant point in favour of Paqueta’s defence and indicated he was being truthful about his lack of interest in gambling.

The commission drew no adverse inference from the fact messages had been deleted from Paqueta’s phone because a time-sensitive automatic deletion function had been activated. The FA accepted it could not be proved Paqueta had deliberately deleted any messages or contacts.

More than 300 deleted messages were recovered, none of which had anything to do with spot-fixing. The commission said this was “a salient reminder to the commission not to jump to conclusions and the dangers of drawing adverse inferences from events unknown”.