The Brazilian congressional commission investigating a network that rigged matches to favor a gambling mafia summoned this Wednesday footballers Lucas Paquetá, from English Wets Ham, and Luiz Henrique to testifyof the Spanish Betis.
In a session held this Wednesday, the Parliamentary Commission of Investigation (CPI) of the Manipulation in Soccer approved 18 requests presented by the deputies that make it up, among them the “invitation” to testify to Lucas Paquetá and Luiz Henrique.
Parliamentarians pointed out that the two players of the Brazilian team will be heard and questioned by videoconferencebecause both are in full championship playing the leagues of England and Spain.
The summons was approved after the session in which the experienced winger Nino Paraiba, from Paysandu de Belém, was questioned and who until the first semester defended América de Belo Horizonte, from the first division.
Lucas Paquetá, due to his possible link in the investigated case, was no longer called up by the national team Fernando Diniz for the first matches for the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, in which Brazil will face Bolivia and Peru.
Diniz acknowledged thathe West Ham midfielder was among those called up, but decided to remove him at the last minute after information that appeared in the press English that he is being investigated within a plot of irregular bets linked to his environment.
The deputies want to know, if confirmed, if the cases of Lucas Paquetá, in England, and Luiz Henrique, in Spain, are related to the network that manipulated parties in Brazil.
Last July, The ordinary Justice of Brazil returned seven soccer players as prisoners of the process and seven other people accused of participating in the network.
The Court of Justice of the state of Goiás (center) accepted the complaint filed by the Prosecutor’s Office about the manipulation of thirteen resultsin the first case addressed by the civil judiciary and dismembered from the multiple denounced in sports establishments.
The thirteen matches correspond to Series A of the 2022 Brazilian Championship and They are part of the third phase of the so-called “Operation Maximum Penalty.”
For the case, the footballers Dadá Belmonte were formally accused (America from Belo Horizonte), Alef Manga (separated from Coritiba) and Igor Carius (Sport Recife).
Also included are the Uruguayan Jesús Trindade (formerly of Coritiba), Pedrinho (former player of Athletico Paranaense and now with Shakthar in Ukraine), Sidcley (formerly Cuiabá and who plays for Dinamo Kiev in Ukraine) and Thonny Anderson (ABC de Natal).
If convicted, the fourteen defendants can receive sentences ranging from two to six years in prison. Sports Justice had already sanctioned some of those players and others who did not appear in the July sentence.
In June, the Superior Court of Sports Justice (STJD) sentenced forward Ygor Catatau, a former Vasco da Gama player who migrated to Iranian football, to the final expulsion from the fields.
The results manipulation network was exposed earlier this year and is suspected of promoting fraud in at least 13 games played since last year, including eight in the first division league.
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