In February, Real Betis completed the big-money sale of Luiz Henrique to Brazilian side Botafogo. The 23-year-old winger had fallen out of favour under head coach Manuel Pellegrini, but prior to his departure, he had also been accused of being involved of spot-fixing offences, alongside West Ham United’s Lucas Paqueta.
UOL (via Relevo) have revealed further details of this in a new report. It’s claimed that Henrique was paid by members of Paqueta’s family to deliberately receive yellow cards during certain matches – these took place when he was a Betis player.
According to the report, the transferring of money to Henrique took place on matchdays when he was shown a yellow card. One of the family members accused in this has denied that the events are linked, and simply claimed that it was money that the former Betis winger had been due.
Neither Betis nor the Spanish Football Federation have addressed the matter, although Botafogo was denied its relevance.