Welcome Paquetá

PrestonHammer

Always thought when watching us play that Paqueta is always likely to get booked because he's always making tackles.

thornburyiron

You’re missing the point. Bets may have been made on his getting booked but it’s still possible he knew but failed to get booked because he was subbed or went off injured.
I would imagine the investigation is around did he know and did he have any involvement.
None of us know exactly what is being investigated but the news this morning definitely stated it began at the World Cup.

ASLEFshrugged

Group games
Serbia, subbed off 75 minutes
Switzerland, subbed off at half time
Cameroon, unused substitute

Ro16 South Korea, played the full 90 minutes
QF Croatia, 105 mins, subbed off after the 1st half of extra time

He had plenty of opportunity so if there were bets on him to get booked either he didn't know about it or he really is useless at fouling, diving, dissent, etc.

Anybody else getting the feeling we planted a fake story to derail the City transfer?

buffybegood

ASLEFshrugged said:

Group games
Serbia, subbed off 75 minutes
Switzerland, subbed off at half time
Cameroon, unused substitute

Ro16 South Korea, played the full 90 minutes
QF Croatia, 105 mins, subbed off after the 1st half of extra time

He had plenty of opportunity so if there were bets on him to get booked either he didn't know about it or he really is useless at fouling, diving, dissent, etc.

Anybody else getting the feeling we planted a fake story to derail the City transfer?

I know Thornbury has made reference to the World Cup (not sure why the FA would be involved in that) but the game I've seen linked most is the PL game v Villa on 12th March.

Definitely not a fake story imo, pretty sure there will be something concrete there wrt the suspicious betting activity, but it will all boil down to whether they can tie it in directly to Paqueta. The most similar previous story I've found is that of Xhaka who got a yellow card for timewasting in the 86th minute when Arsenal were leading 4-1 in a game where someone placed a bet of £52k that he would receive a yellow card in the last 10 minutes of the game.

After an investigation a case couldn't be proven against Xhaka, however suspect the behaviour and the bets placed looked. Let's hope we get a similar outcome with Paqueta, but the fact that the new betting accounts are linked to his home island of only 3,500 people is extremely suspicious imo.

thornburyiron

Buffy it’s also being investigated by FIFA and may well have been under scrutiny before our Villa game.

OutcastLondoner

I don’t know if all of this is true but I kind of love the idea that his tiny little island thought they’d get away with bets in the name of Rosie the Dog.

ASLEFshrugged

I'm a firm believer in innocent until proven guilty, in recent years many people have had their reputations and careers ruined by accusations that turned out later to be unsubstantiated

Trial by social media

IronHerb

https://twitter.com/MailSport/status/1693005281385480430

PrestonHammer

Unless they have him with either a betting slip in his hand or a message telling them to put the bet on, then I don't them having any proof that he's done anything wrong.

IronHerb

So there appears to be a process where the bookies report suspicious activity to a world body of bookies who report to FIFA who report to the local FA. So nothing to do with the World Cup just the Villa booking and let's face it, who wouldn't want to lunge into the back of John McGinn? 😁

Yeoldhammer

Does the state have powers in these situations to confiscate his phone / emails / laptop or whatever to even try and find if the allegations that there was potential insider deals happening to get a yellow card ? otherwise how would you ever prove it.

IronHerb

The Pakistani cricketers were charged with 'conspiracy to cheat at gambling and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.' The police can get involved, not sure what their trigger is, but if so they can probably go through his phone etc.

Slacker

If only there was a mechanism whereby the bookies were prevented from continually feeding addicts with incentives that lead to suicides eh?

ASLEFshrugged

Yeoldhammer said:

Does the state have powers in these situations to confiscate his phone / emails / laptop or whatever to even try and find if the allegations that there was potential insider deals happening to get a yellow card ? otherwise how would you ever prove it.

The state isn't involved as it's not illegal.

This is purely FA/Premier League or FIFA if it's World Cup

ASLEFshrugged

Erase that last comment

Apparently under Section 42 of the Gambling Act 2005 cheating is illegal

But as the bets were placed in Brazil I don't think the Met would have any jurisdiction to investigate

chicagohammer

Unusual betting patterns are a certainly a thing and there are very sophisticated systems in place that are capable of identifying them.

The inference is that there was a surge of bets from his home islands (which I assume has a smallish population with familiaral ties to Paqueta) and the bet concerned the issue of a yellow card in a particular game where he has a high level of control over the outcome.

Assuming the betting pattern exists then suspicion would certainly be aroused and I can see why an investigation was triggered so we have to await the outcome, but for me, the trick here is to establish how much did Paqueta actually know about it.

If he really was involved it would be monumentally stupid and deserving of the strongest sanction but I think that will be difficult to establish without the presence of provable communication.

ASLEFshrugged

Paqueta is an island singular rather than islands plural, about half a square mile in area with a population of 3000

It's part of Rio de Janero which has a population of about 6.7m

Like a Brazilian Isle of Dogs

jay_in_cpt

ASLEFshrugged said:

Paqueta is an island singular rather than islands plural, about half a square mile in area with a population of 3000

It's part of Rio de Janero which has a population of about 6.7m

Like a Brazilian Isle of Dogs

That makes is sound so glamorous !!!

PrestonHammer

Think Fantasy Island hahaha

BubblesNeverDies

ASLEFshrugged said:

Paqueta is an island singular rather than islands plural, about half a square mile in area with a population of 3000

It's part of Rio de Janero which has a population of about 6.7m

Like a Brazilian Isle of Dogs

You mean like, Ilha dos Cachorros.

ASLEFshrugged

Indeed

Ilha de Paqueta means Isle of Many Pacas, a Paca being a ground dwelling rodent that lives in burrows

Isle of Rats?

MrsGrey

Sounds like something out of Terry Pratchett.

ScotHammer

An island of 3000, where he knows someone else! They probably all went to school together. Well done Daily Mail for breaking this shocking news. 🤦‍♂️⚒

ASLEFshrugged

I developed a low opinion of the Daily Mail in 1982 when they ran a front page story about the company I worked for and it was pure lies from start to finish

A couple of weeks later they apologised on page 35 or somewhere

ScotHammer

I find The Beano has a better grip on current affairs.

Giant_Hammer

Sorry ScotHammer, I read the Beano the other day and I reckon a lot of it isn’t true.

buffybegood

Paqueta's hearing reported to have been postponed for "up to 3 weeks".

alderz

buffybegood said:

Paqueta's hearing reported to have been postponed for "up to 3 weeks".

Reportedly at our request. I wonder why we would want it moved to after the transfer window closes?

MrsGrey

Taking a leaf out of the Trump play book

buffybegood

alderz said:

buffybegood said:

Paqueta's hearing reported to have been postponed for "up to 3 weeks".

Reportedly at our request. I wonder why we would want it moved to after the transfer window closes?

I can't see this being resolved quickly one way or the other, so I think there would have been next to no chance of a move this window even if the hearing hadn't been postponed.