Lucas Paqueta often joked about participating in the Brazilian version of Big Brother. This iconic reality show drew him in with its challenges, captivating much of Brazil. He was intrigued by what the contestants faced within the confining walls of the house.

Over the last couple of years, Paqueta has come to experience firsthand the scrutiny similar to what reality TV stars endure. Every aspect of his actions is observed and judged globally, offering him no respite or shelter from the constant evaluation.

In August 2023, Mail Sport revealed that the West Ham forward was under investigation for allegedly intentionally receiving yellow cards in four Premier League games to affect betting outcomes. This allegation has cast a shadow over Paqueta, threatening his reputation and career. A guilty verdict would mean a life ban from the FA.

Eight grueling weeks after his trial ended, a trial where former manager David Moyes testified on his behalf, the shocking verdict was delivered at 3 pm on a Thursday. It came mere hours after Paqueta scored a crucial equalizer for West Ham in a pre-season game against Everton in Chicago.

Lucas Paqueta, cleared of spot-fixing. This is the inside story of what really happened in his two years from hell.

Following the announcement, Paqueta shared on social media: ‘The adversary may approach us in one way, but they will disperse in seven.’ From the onset of this investigation, he steadfastly proclaimed his innocence regarding these grave charges. Although he couldn’t say much more at the moment, he expressed immense gratitude to God and anticipation to return to playing football joyfully.

‘To my wife who never let go of my hand, to West Ham, to the fans who always cheered me on, to Fernando Malta and my legal team at Level (Alastair Campbell, Jonathan Hyman, Dan Lowen), Nick De Marco KC, and Kendrah Potts — thank you for everything.’

Mail Sport understands members of Paqueta’s legal team at London firm Level informed the Brazilian of the result last week via his representatives, sparking a huge outpouring of emotion. By the time he was pictured smiling as he walked with his West Ham team-mates through Times Square over the weekend, he knew his career was saved.

Paqueta was found guilty on two further counts of obstructing the FA’s investigation. The independent regulatory commission will recommend a punishment in due course – it is likely to be a fine – but the most serious charges are over.

It brings to an end the most high‑profile corruption case in English football since Bruce Grobbelaar was acquitted of conspiring to fix five Premier League games nearly 30 years ago.

It was an investigation that was always going to have consequences. It cost Paqueta a dream move to Manchester City, a deal that was all-but complete, and the riches that would have come with it. It cost West Ham £85million in the process. It briefly cost Paqueta his place in the Brazil squad, an honour held close to his heart. It so nearly cost him his career.

West Ham have long been furious about how drawn-out the process has been, and the torment it caused to Paqueta, not just dragging on for the best part of two months after the trial finished but also a mysterious further delay in announcing the verdict.

Many at the club – and in the media – were under the impression the verdict would be made public last Friday (July 25). West Ham insiders confirmed to Mail Sport that afternoon they had received word of the verdict but insisted they were unable to comment.

Hours passed with no official word from the FA as sources close to the case began to suggest Paqueta had been cleared. Now, at last, it’s here.

‘We are pleased Lucas has been cleared,’ said West Ham vice-chair Karren Brady. ‘He has maintained his innocence from the outset, and as a club we have resolutely stood by him and supported him throughout the process.

‘Despite the incredible pressure on him, Lucas has performed week in and week out for the club, always giving everything. It has been a difficult time for Lucas and his family, but he has remained absolutely professional throughout and he is now looking forward to drawing a line under this episode, as is everyone at West Ham United.’

Paqueta always denied any wrongdoing, and West Ham continued to stand by him, but that did not stop the weight of it all taking its toll in the nearly 1,000 days since he received that first booking against Leicester in November 2022.

Mail Sport revealed in April how Paqueta was struggling to bear the burden of it all with sources stressing how taxing it was on him, even if he tried not to show it.

West Ham always feared Paqueta was being set up to lose his seismic fight due to the FA’s standard of proof being based on a ‘balance of probabilities’, usual in civil cases, as opposed to the stricter ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ in criminal matters.

Senior Hammers sources told Mail Sport back in June that it was ‘savage’ and ‘very wrong’ a career could swing on a ’51 per cent’ guilty verdict.

A source close to the dressing room told Mail Sport that around the training ground you would barely have known anything untoward was going on inside Paqueta’s mind as he maintained his usual calm, quiet demeanour. When a senior member of staff took him aside at their Rush Green training ground to first explain to him about the investigation, he apparently showed little emotion.

‘He’s been great throughout,’ West Ham boss Graham Potter said during the club’s pre-season Summer Series tour in America. ‘It’s been an incredible challenge for him. 

‘Lucas has been brilliant in the dressing room, trained every day, trained really hard and been a big part of the team. We’ve tried to support him as best we can through a really challenging part of his life.’

But behind that mask, Paqueta was struggling. One source said there were ‘good days and bad days’. On one of those bad days, for example, he is believed to have refused to go on a school community visit. He trudged out of another Moyes training session during the early days.

Paqueta returned to the Vitality Stadium in December for the first time since his booking there in August 2023, the fourth of the bookings under suspicion, amid reports linking him with a move back to former club Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro.

Before the game, Paqueta posted cryptic lyrics to a song by Brazilian gospel duo Jefferson & Suellen called Vem Me Buscar, which translates as ‘Come Get Me’. The lyrics he posted translated as ‘I’m not from here, I will return home, he comes to get me and with him I will go.’

Paqueta, however, scored an 87th-minute opener in the 1-1 draw, kissed the badge on his shirt and embraced then-manager Julen Lopetegui. ‘I love playing for West Ham, I love the fans,’ he said afterwards.

Everything got a bit too much for Paqueta, though, in May this year, during West Ham’s draw with Tottenham. Paqueta walked out at the London Stadium holding the hands of his two sons, Benico and Filippo, who wore ‘Daddy 10’ on the backs of their West Ham shirts, arranged as a treat for Filippo’s fourth birthday. It was a special occasion for the family.

Only later on, in the 73rd minute, Paqueta tripped Tottenham’s Mikey Moore, referee Michael Oliver booked him and Paqueta burst into tears. Oliver went over to him as West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen consoled his team-mate before Potter substituted him seven minutes later.

‘We’ve been living this nightmare for two years and my husband is always strong,’ Paqueta’s wife Duda Fournier posted on Instagram that night. ‘I just wish people would respect him. People are mean and unfair, without knowing anything!’

Most of the suspicious bets were traced to Paqueta Island, a small island in Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay, where Lucas Tolentino Coelho de Lima was born and from which he takes his new name. It has a population of around 4,000 and there are no cars.

Paqueta used to annoy his neighbour by kicking a football against her walls and doors if he had no one to play with and from the age of nine, he would take a ferry and three buses with his grandfather Mirao to training at Flamengo.

About 60 bets were placed on him to be booked in the four games in question, ranging from £7 stakes up to £400. Paqueta did not place any bets on himself.

His first booking was for a late tackle on Leicester’s Boubakary Soumare in November 2022. The next came four months later for hacking down Aston Villa’s John McGinn in a 1-1 draw on March 12, 2023.

Aside from the FA investigation, a Brazilian parliamentary inquiry into gambling in football was also taking place and evidence presented to it accused Paqueta of boasting that he would get a yellow card as a ‘birthday present’ to his brother Matheus. The match against Villa took place on Matheus’s birthday.

Paqueta’s third yellow card was for a tackle on winger Crysencio Summerville, now a team-mate, in the 65th minute of a 3-1 home win over Leeds when the score was 1-1.

The fourth and final booking came in the first game of the following season when Paqueta was shown a yellow card for handball in stoppage time in a draw at Bournemouth. Less than two weeks later, on August 18, 2023, Mail Sport broke the news Paqueta was being investigated by the FA.

On May 23, 2024, the FA formally charged Paqueta with four breaches, one for each yellow card, and two more for obstructing their investigation.

It was for that final booking against Bournemouth, in his first competitive game since setting up Jarrod Bowen for West Ham’s historic winner in Prague as the club lifted the Europa Conference League title, that Moyes gave evidence in Paqueta’s defence.

Paqueta’s head had been turned by City’s interest and it is claimed the Brazilian asked to skip the trip down south. Moyes took him aside at Rush Green, explained that he understood how he felt but that he intended to keep using him until he was no longer a West Ham player. Paqueta agreed to start.

He was understood to have believed he would be subbed once West Ham were winning comfortably so as not to jeopardise a move to City. Despite taking the lead through Bowen after 51 minutes, he remained on the pitch for the remainder of the game as Dominic Solanke levelled eight minutes from time.

Paqueta also had highly respected sports lawyer De Marco on his side, who previously helped Ivan Toney when the former Brentford striker was charged with betting breaches, alongside his own legal team at London firm Level.

‘I cannot say how happy I was to receive the news that all the spot-fixing charges against Lucas Paqueta have been dismissed after a long two years,’ said De Marco.

‘Having got to know Lucas during the process, and spent much time with the evidence, I am delighted the correct verdict has been reached. Doing a case for an individual, especially one as dedicated and talented as Lucas, whose whole career and life depends on the outcome, can be very stressful at times. But when the final result is the right one it makes it all worthwhile.

‘That’s why for me this is probably one of the most important cases I have ever worked on, and one I shall never forget.’

The question is what happens now. West Ham are unlikely to sue the FA for missing out on their huge payday, with insiders suggesting it would be a bad look for football to take action against the game’s custodians. Paqueta, though, will wait for the written reasons to be published before considering his options as to whether he wants to take legal action.

Paqueta has impressed during West Ham’s preparations for the new campaign with three goals in pre-season, the latest against Moyes’s Everton.

West Ham are willing to sell the mercurial talent they signed from Lyon for a record £51m. How much profit, if any, they can make is the issue. Paqueta has scored just eight league goals in the past two seasons as his off-field struggles seeped on to the pitch.

An emotional return to Flamengo appears the most likely scenario, though the Brazilian giants believe they can prise him from West Ham for £30m, which would be £10m more than their current record signing. West Ham chiefs are adamant they will not sell him on the cheap, with a senior source telling Mail Sport recently, that they will ‘get a lot more than £25m or we’d keep him’, and value him closer to £60m.

Whether this tortuous chapter ends with Paqueta staying or going will eventually become clear but, for now, it’s a victory that’s been long in the waiting.

‘I deny the charges in their entirety and will fight with every breath to clear my name,’ he said at the time. At last, he has. Paqueta can breathe freely again.