West Ham midfielder Lucas Paqueta is considering suing the Football Association after he was cleared of spot-fixing.
Sources close to the 28-year-old have told Media Sport that the player’s lawyers are currently “considering all options”.
The Brazilian was charged by the FA in May 2024 for allegedly getting booked deliberately for the “improper purpose of affecting the betting market”.
Paqueta was cleared on four counts of supposed spot-fixing by an independent commission in July 2025.
Written reasons detailing the commission’s findings were published on Wednesday, calling into question the FA’s decision not to call in independent expertise on the key area of betting data.
Paqueta’s legal team is now analysing the case and considering all options in response, including suing the FA.
The FA’s investigation into Paqueta began in August 2023 – nine months before the Brazilian was eventually charged.
The announcement of the investigation led to the collapse of the Brazilian’s £80m move to Manchester City.
The commission noted that both Paqueta and West Ham would have “received substantial sums running into the tens of millions of pounds” and that “both the player and West Ham reserve all of their rights in that regard”.
The FA, which has confirmed it will not be appealing against the decision, has been contacted for comment.
How Paqueta cleared his name
A 314-page document prepared by Sports Resolutions – an independent and not-for-profit dispute resolution service – provided detail of the case.
A range of information – from former West Ham manager David Moyes’ views on the yellow cards to conversations Paqueta’s hairdresser mother Cristiane had in a salon back in Brazil – is covered by the commission’s written findings.
The FA claimed 542 bets totalling £46,758.83 were staked by 253 different bettors with a collective return of £213,703.81, reflecting a net profit of £166,944.98.
However, the commission noted that the FA’s case rested “entirely on circumstantial evidence” and the decision to tender evidence on the betting data from one of its own employees, betting integrity investigator Tom Astley, was an “oddity” and “an obvious flaw”.
“In the commission’s view, on what the FA has accepted was the most important element of its case, it simply did not call independent expert evidence,” the commission said in the written findings.
“Instead, it relies on the evidence of its integrity investigator and asks the commission to accept that he has shown the impartiality that would have been expected of an independent expert.”
In his evidence, Astley said the betting on Paqueta “appears highly orchestrated”.
The commission said the FA’s legal counsel subsequently disagreed with Astley’s assessment and was “thus abandoning, without further explanation, its case on orchestration”.
The FA said 27 of the 253 bettors could be linked to the player, but 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 commission concluded that an analysis of the betting data was not “illustrative of a spot-fix” and added it was “in many respects inconsistent with a spot-fix, but consistent with alternative explanations”.
Nick de Marco, part of Paqueta’s legal team, said: “I remain delighted for my client Lucas, cleared of all the serious charges of spot-fixing.
“The decision is understood to be the longest sports-related judgment ever issued in the world – a reflection of how serious the case was, the amount of evidence deployed in what was the biggest case in the FA’s history.”
