⚖️ Paquetá considers suing FA after failed City move | OneFootball

Lucas Paquetá could sue the English Football Federation (FA) for the "incalculable damage" caused after the failed transfer to Manchester City, which did not materialize amid allegations of betting manipulation.

The news was echoed on Thursday (4) by the English newspaper The Independent.

In July, an independent commission cleared the West Ham midfielder of the four charges that he had forced cards in Premier League games between November 2022 and August 2023 to influence the betting market.

And, last Wednesday (3), the FA decided not to appeal the decision, closing the case after two years.

The FA investigation began in August 2023 and shattered the 80 million pound proposal from Manchester City, as, if convicted, Paquetá could have received up to four years of suspension.

Alastair Campbell, a partner at Level and head of Paquetá's legal team, said that "nothing is ruled out" after the FA confirmed that it will not appeal the commission's decision. "We are talking to Lucas about this, it is under consideration," he told Sky Sports.

"He wants to focus on football now, he has spent too much time talking to lawyers. But I would recommend that he seriously consider suing, because what he lost is incalculable in financial terms," he said. "He was very close to transferring to City, who ended up winning the Premier League that season. That's a huge loss," Campbell added.

The commission's report was published on Wednesday (3) and highlighted that 253 bettors placed bets on Paquetá's cards in four games, of which 27 could have some link to the athlete.

The Brazilian admitted to knowing only five of these people, with whom he had little contact and rarely talked about football. The commission concluded that the analyzed data were not "illustrative of result manipulation", but compatible with other explanations.

The body also found nothing in the player's on-field conduct that would support the charges. In addition, it emphasized that no message from Paquetá's cell phones referred to betting, reinforcing his defense of non-involvement.

More than 300 recovered messages, automatically deleted by the device's scheduled deletion system, also showed no connection with manipulation.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.

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