Kieran Maguire sums up West Ham star Paqueta’s trial findings perfectly in one word
Kieran Maguire has little sympathy for the FA after failing in their case against West Ham star Lucas Paqueta.
West Ham midfielder Paqueta was cleared of spot-fixing breaches in four fixtures between November 2022 and August 2023.
Despite not breaking any sort of law, Paqueta missed out on a move to Manchester City as a result of these allegations, raising questions of a potential new legal case for the Brazilian.
For now, Paqueta won’t open a legal battle against the FA, but that isn’t to say that the wider footballing world haven’t been left baffled by the governing body’s actions.
This has seen Maguire speak out against the Football Association for their poor preparation in the case against Paqueta.
Kieran Maguire labels FA amateurs over Lucas Paqueta case
With the former Lyon man cleared of any betting-related breaches, there was always likely to be a sizable fallout.
This has been seen after the FA published a 314-page document about Paqueta’s case, summing up their poor preparation as the legal battle went to trial.
Considering Paqueta had help from the likes of David Moyes and Mark Clattenburg, many expected the Football Association to be as prepared.
This wasn’t the case, and instead, they made themselves look amateurish and ultimately lost in the case against the Hammers star.
With that in mind, football finance expert Maguire has spoken out via the Price of Football podcast on 11 September.
Maguire brilliantly summed the FA’s approach up in one word when saying he was ‘gobsmacked’ by their approach.
He said: “When you look at the written publication, and there were 300 pages to wade your way through, it was gobsmacking in terms of the ineptitude and amateurishness of the Football Association.
“The accusation against Paqueta is that there was spot-fixing in terms of getting yellow cards, and people have benefited from it. But when you looked at the FA’s prosecution, first of all, they didn’t employ an expert witness. They effectively used their own man.
“Now, the trouble is that if you or I, following a match, said, ‘He dived. He did this, he did that.’ That in itself wouldn’t be enough to win a legal case, and it does appear that the FA’s main man was convinced that Paqueta had done this spot fixing. The Football Association did not appear to then get that checked.
“They did no independent assessment of their own case. They then, towards the end, disagreed with their own witness. I think it’s fair to say that the FA’s main witness folded like a cheap suit under cross-examination.”
West Ham and Lucas Paqueta benefit from FA failures
There is no doubt that the FA were hugely poor in their efforts to find the Irons’ attacking midfielder guilty of spot-fixing.
This could prove to be the basis for a blockbuster case from Paqueta for damages against the governing body for damages to reputation and finances in the past two years.
Despite this, for now, the lack of expertise from the Football Association has helped the Hammers and the Brazilian to return all focus onto footballing matters.
This saw the 28-year-old shine against Nottingham Forest, something which could prove to be the building ground to thrive across the rest of the Premier League season.
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