Paqueta - Betting Scandal

Soldato
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I can’t see any links from Twitter on this forum anymore. I don’t have an account. Only happenEd last couple of days on my iPad. They just don’t load. Have I done something daft with my settings?
 
Don
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It's not looking good for him. If found guilty he's surely looking at a 3 year ban at least?
Yea, I really don't think many people realise how serious this is and how it's not like the Toney incident. I mentioned earlier in the thread that we've seen cricketers go to prison for this with bans ranging from 5 years all the way up to lifetime bans.

If he's charged and found guilty then his career is pretty much over.
 
Soldato
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Yea, I really don't think many people realise how serious this is and how it's not like the Toney incident. I mentioned earlier in the thread that we've seen cricketers go to prison for this with bans ranging from 5 years all the way up to lifetime bans.

If he's charged and found guilty then his career is pretty much over.
I hope West ham have some kind of insurance against this!
If true, I wonder if he was being put under some kind of pressure by people in Brazil. It seems like a crazy way to get money, when he is probably already on about 5mil/season.
 
Don
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I hope West ham have some kind of insurance against this!
If true, I wonder if he was being put under some kind of pressure by people in Brazil. It seems like a crazy way to get money, when he is probably already on about 5mil/season.
Who knows what the motivations behind it were but I'd never ruled out simple greed and stupidity. It's very possible that they just thought nothing of it, like it was some sort of victimless crime and an easy way to make a few £. A year or so back that lunatic Matt Le Tissier admitted to betting (either himself or friends/family) on the timing of the first throwing of a game, where he planned to kick the ball straight out of play from kick-off.

Not related to betting but highlighting the greed and stupidity of some people, I can remember when John Terry (earning £100k+ per week) got exposed by undercover reporters agreeing to do private tours of Chelsea's training ground for £5k(?) a time and then a year or so later it was reported he was touting his private box at Wembley that he was given as part of his England captaincy. You then of course have Sam Allardyce getting caught by undercover reporters agreeing to some part-time work with some fake undesirables.
 
Soldato
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It does seem like a crazy thing to do in isolation...

"Would you mind getting this yellow so a few of us can earn a few hundred thousands...risk your millions, career and livelihood yeah?"

In my mind (trying to understand) I imagine it's been integrated throughout his career and he's not been caught until now because in the PL there is far closer scrutiny..

It's possible he's probably just been doing similar small scale fixings and barely thought anything of it... we can be a naive and lax bunch when things are going well.
 
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Don
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I think there was a lot more to that though, mainly Liang Wenbo and his family behind it all. It's a very serious thing and Paqueta will be lucky to avoid jail if found guilty.
It all depends on his level of involvement. If as @EdwardTeach touches on and he's been put under pressure from criminal gangs to do this then his not likely to face prison but if not and this is something he's willfully chosen to do then it's a real possibility. I had a quick look back at the Pakistani cricket/no ball thing and all involved got 5+ year bans however it was only a couple, deemed to be the masterminds behind it, that got prison time.
 
Caporegime
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It all depends on his level of involvement. If as @EdwardTeach touches on and he's been put under pressure from criminal gangs to do this then his not likely to face prison but if not and this is something he's willfully chosen to do then it's a real possibility. I had a quick look back at the Pakistani cricket/no ball thing and all involved got 5+ year bans however it was only a couple, deemed to be the masterminds behind it, that got prison time.
Hansie Cronje was the worst. Crooked to the core he was
 
Associate
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I'm amazed that he's still playing. The whole thing seems really risky from West Ham's perspective.

Obviously he might be innocent, but the evidence seems damning already.
 
Don
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He's not even been charged yet so he's free to play. I can't remember where now but I read something earlier about him being due to be interviewed by the FA soon.
 
Man of Honour
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Seems a bit dodgy but interested to know if there's more than one incident. Would like to know the actual odds too not just what someone said they were on twitter.

Reminds me of the Matt Le Tissier thing, there was some spread bet on the timing of the first throw-in but supposedly he failed to kick it into touch (which is laughable given his technique was second to none) so was running around the most he's ever done desperately trying to kick it out to reduce the losses. He admitted it himself years later but never got charged for it. Back then I suspect fraud detection systems were a lot more primitive.
 
Don
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Seems a bit dodgy but interested to know if there's more than one incident.
According to a report by Matt Hughes tonight, the FA are investigating 3 yellow cards he received including one from the opening day of this season:
 
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