Who is Rui Pinto? The whistleblower abandoned by Portuguese authorities over Man City leaks

Manchester City find themselves at the centre of the biggest story in Premier League history as they face potential relegation or expulsion from a division they currently lead, after being found guilty of nearly all of the 115 charges levied against them.

But this scandal had humble beginnings.

Rui Pinto is the Portuguese hacker who blew the whistle on City’s financial cheating, prompting an entire Premier League investigation.

Through his website Football Leaks, he published confidential documents that showed City broke league rules over a nine-season period in 2018. German newspaper Der Spiegel’s subsequent investigative report detailing allegations against City was based on these documents.

Pinto was in other legal trouble by the time the City allegations took the football world by storm. After being unmasked as the man behind Football Leaks, he faced 147 charges that included computer fraud, attempted extortion and violating privacy of correspondence in Portugal, having published a number of stories about other players and clubs including those relating to Porto and Benfica. He was extradited from Hungary, where he had been living, in March 2019.

He described himself as a “whistleblower” and denied wrongdoing, claiming he was trying to expose “what was wrong with football”. He spent more than a year in custody before going under house arrest before a criminal trial in Lisbon. In September 2023, he received a four-year suspended jail sentence and has been living under police witness protection at an undisclosed location since.

Upon learning the emphatic verdict in the City case, Pinto said: “The statement released today by the Premier League ultimately confirms, unequivocally, the truth of everything that was revealed through Football Leaks.” It marks a victory eight years in the making for the 37-year-old.

Portuguese whistleblower and founder of Football Leaks, Rui Pinto (AFP/Getty)

However, the news has been followed by a hammer blow for Pinto. Less than 24 hours after the independent commission made City’s guilt official, Pinto discovered he would lose his witness protection on Saturday 10 October. He will be forced out of his confidential residence and must find new housing; something which has been described “an act of state terrorism”.

“His situation is now critical,” said a joint statement from his Portuguese and French legal team. “The threats against him are not merely theoretical; he was assaulted in Lisbon last April.

“His revelations implicated powerful figures with vast resources, and many resulting legal proceedings are still ongoing, as evidenced by the decision handed down just days ago by the Premier League’s independent commission regarding Manchester City.

“Abruptly deprived of his protected housing and plunged into a state of extreme precariousness, Rui Pinto would be more vulnerable now than at any time since 2020.”

Pinto now has the footballing world waiting on tenterhooks after revealing he will make a “very important announcement” at 7pm BST on Friday.