Simon Jordan reacts as Jim White moots lifetime ban for West Ham United ace Lucas Paqueta live on air
Simon Jordan has shared his reaction after Jim White mooted the possibility of a lifetime ban from football for West Ham United star Lucas Paqueta.
The FA announced on Thursday (24 May) that the Brazilian international has been charged with four alleged breaches of the betting rules in Premier League games between November 2022 and August 2023.
While Jordan insists that the Hammers ace is innocent until proven guilty of these charges, both he and White are in agreement that the midfielder is in a “world of trouble”.
Speaking on talkSPORT on Friday (24 May, 10:08) White said: “West Ham midfielder Lucas Paqueta is facing a lifetime ban from football after being charged by the FA in what could be the most high-profile corruption case of the Premier League era.
“Paqueta, Simon, denies all the charges that are made against him and he will fight it all away. So Paqueta is in a world of trouble, do you see any way out for him here?”
Jordan replied: “Well, they’ve charged him so we are still some way away from him being found guilty of it. We are still in the territory of presumed innocence until found guilty.
“We’ve seen this before, we’ve seen match-fixing allegations back in the mid-90s, so we’ve seen this journey being followed through in a different environment. It’s serious stuff, the consequences can be serious and people are talking about the spectrum it could go through.
“I would assume that the FA have significant and serious evidence because if they haven’t and for whatever reason they are flying a kite that doesn’t have substance behind it, they’re playing with a young lad’s life and career.
“If they’re going to charge a player, I want it to be unequivocal in their own minds. I don’t want this to be an exercise of a half-baked opportunity where it looks like it could be something but that haven’t got irrefutable evidence.
“If he has done it, I want him to be cleared unequivocally. If he has done it, I want him to be consequences.”
Will West Ham United star Lucas Paqueta been banned from football?
While this whole investigation has been widely reported in the public eye for much of the last year, no one could have quite expected the prospective punishment to be quite this severe.
As Jordan insists, Paqueta is innocent until proven guilty and while this allegation doesn’t look good for anyone involved at the London Stadium, there is still a chance that it is nothing more than just an allegation.
It does feel unlikely that the FA would be willing to escalate the problem to such a height unless they had some irrefutable evidence to back up their claims, but stranger things have happened before in football.
Hopefully, some greater clarity will emerge over this situation sooner rather than later because these charges could have massive implications for both Paqueta and Julen Lopetegui’s transfer plans.
In other West Ham news, Simon Jordan has shared his immediate reaction to the appointment of Lopetegui in East London
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