The CBF has now released an official statement on West Ham United star Lucas Paquetá.
In the past few days, the Brazilian media had already been claiming that the player would continue to be part of the Copa America squad, despite the betting charges from the Football Association.
Now the CBF comes forward with a piece on their website claiming that president Ednaldo Rodrigues exchanged information with FA executive director Mark Bullingham about the West Ham player.
They publish all the answers they got in the email. That makes Paquetá’s situation a lot clearer, and this is how it goes:
(a) Although the player is now subject to a number of charges, the FA has not received any provisional suspension order against Lucas Paquetá and therefore there is no impediment to him continuing to play at this time.
(b) No interim measures have been requested in relation to the current charges against Lucas Paquetá.
(c) The current position is that the player’s formal response to the charges is due on 3rd June. We anticipate that, due to the detail of this case, there may be a request to extend the deadline for responding to the charges. We will update you as soon as we are aware of any revised date. As for a likely date for the case to reach a final decision, it is not possible to provide an estimate, but we will endeavour to keep you updated whenever possible.
(d) As above, no interim measures have been requested in relation to the player and, consequently, no request has been made to FIFA.
Brazil are now starting their preparation for the Copa America, with Paquetá being one of the players who’s joining the squad in Orlando.
The West Ham midfielder is expected to fight for a starting place in the team, so it was very important for the CBF to have his situation made clear before the start of the competition.
They’re now sure that there’s no problem in using him, and it remains to be seen how he’ll deal with all of this.
