COMPUTER HACKER RUI Pinto, the man behind the Football Leaks website, which helped trigger the Premier League probe into Manchester City’s finances, faces “dire consequences” after having his protected witness status removed, his lawyers said on Friday.
Pinto “was informed on Wednesday that the special security programme he has benefited from since August 2020 would end on 10 October,” his Portuguese lawyers Francisco and Luisa Teixeira da Mota said in a joint statement with his French representatives William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth.
“In a few days, without having been given a prior hearing as required by law, he would lose the secure, confidential housing assigned to him and be forced to find a new home urgently, with no guarantee that police protection would be maintained,” they continued, describing the move as a “decision with dire consequences”.
“The threats against him are not merely theoretical; he was assaulted in Lisbon last April. His revelations implicated powerful figures with vast resources, and numerous resulting legal proceedings are still ongoing,” they noted.
“Abruptly deprived of his protected housing and plunged into extreme precariousness, Rui Pinto is reportedly more vulnerable now than at any time since 2020,” his lawyers added.
The 37-year-old Pinto has been a protected witness since 2020 after agreeing to grant Portuguese authorities access to millions of files gathered before his arrest.
Arrested in Hungary, where he was living in January 2019 and subsequently extradited to his home country, Portugal, Pinto spent over a year in pre-trial detention before agreeing to cooperate with authorities by granting them access to the encrypted data in his possession.
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Rui Pinto, a Portuguese hacker whose bombshell revelations on the Football Leaks website which rocked European soccer , arrives at the Paris court room, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023 in Paris. Alamy Stock Photo
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Pinto was both a defendant and a protected witness for the Portuguese justice system. He is also cooperating with investigators from other European countries.
During his first trial, the former history student and self-taught computer expert admitted hacking computers to obtain millions of documents, which he began publishing online in late 2015.
Passed on to a consortium of European investigative media outlets, this wealth of information exposed questionable practices involving star football players, clubs and agents, subsequently leading to tax adjustments and judicial investigations in several countries.
A Portuguese court handed Pinto a suspended four-year sentence in September 2023 after he was found guilty on counts of attempted extortion, illegal access to data and breach of correspondence.
Meanwhile, City have lodged their appeal against the damning judgment that they broke Premier League financial rules.
An independent commission found City guilty in a report released earlier this week.
City had until Friday to appeal, and the club announced just before midday they had done so.
A statement on mancity.com read: “Manchester City Football Club can confirm that, at 7pm on Thursday 1st October 2026, the club lodged its comprehensive appeal against the opinion of the Premier League commission, in relation to the Premier League disciplinary matter.
“The club’s firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.
“The club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions relating to this case.
“We will continue to respect due process and are necessarily restricted in what we can say further until all proceedings are complete.”
The Press Association understands City intend to present evidence to an appeal board that they say refutes the key finding of the original commission that owner funding was being disguised as sponsorship revenue.
The commission concluded more than £830 million (€972.2 million) of such funding was used to inflate revenues and enable the club to comply with Premier League and Uefa financial rules through a series of “sham” arrangements.
At the heart of the club’s appeal will be an insistence that government funding, provided via the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court (CPC), gave financial assistance to sponsors in the emirate to help them to fulfil their liabilities to City, rather than Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) company, which owns the club.
The 40-page core decision published on Tuesday shows the independent commission rejected the CPC explanation as “untrue” in its findings, adding: “We concluded that it was an ‘explanation’ that the club had concocted well after the event in an attempt to obscure and conceal the realities of the disguised funding scheme.”
Confirmation of the appeal means the lengthy process still has some way to run, while the Football Association opened the possibility of its own action in a statement on Friday.
“The independent commission’s decision has significant implications for the integrity of the game,” said the statement on thefa.com.
“We are carefully considering the decision and its implications and will take action where appropriate.
“As proceedings between the Premier League and Manchester City Football Club remain ongoing, we do not intend to comment further at this stage. We will, however, continue to monitor developments closely.”
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Man City whistleblower facing 'dire consequences'
Updated at 15.49
COMPUTER HACKER RUI Pinto, the man behind the Football Leaks website, which helped trigger the Premier League probe into Manchester City’s finances, faces “dire consequences” after having his protected witness status removed, his lawyers said on Friday.
Pinto “was informed on Wednesday that the special security programme he has benefited from since August 2020 would end on 10 October,” his Portuguese lawyers Francisco and Luisa Teixeira da Mota said in a joint statement with his French representatives William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth.
“The threats against him are not merely theoretical; he was assaulted in Lisbon last April. His revelations implicated powerful figures with vast resources, and numerous resulting legal proceedings are still ongoing,” they noted.
“Abruptly deprived of his protected housing and plunged into extreme precariousness, Rui Pinto is reportedly more vulnerable now than at any time since 2020,” his lawyers added.
The 37-year-old Pinto has been a protected witness since 2020 after agreeing to grant Portuguese authorities access to millions of files gathered before his arrest.
Arrested in Hungary, where he was living in January 2019 and subsequently extradited to his home country, Portugal, Pinto spent over a year in pre-trial detention before agreeing to cooperate with authorities by granting them access to the encrypted data in his possession.
Pinto was both a defendant and a protected witness for the Portuguese justice system. He is also cooperating with investigators from other European countries.
During his first trial, the former history student and self-taught computer expert admitted hacking computers to obtain millions of documents, which he began publishing online in late 2015.
Passed on to a consortium of European investigative media outlets, this wealth of information exposed questionable practices involving star football players, clubs and agents, subsequently leading to tax adjustments and judicial investigations in several countries.
A Portuguese court handed Pinto a suspended four-year sentence in September 2023 after he was found guilty on counts of attempted extortion, illegal access to data and breach of correspondence.
Meanwhile, City have lodged their appeal against the damning judgment that they broke Premier League financial rules.
An independent commission found City guilty in a report released earlier this week.
City had until Friday to appeal, and the club announced just before midday they had done so.
A statement on mancity.com read: “Manchester City Football Club can confirm that, at 7pm on Thursday 1st October 2026, the club lodged its comprehensive appeal against the opinion of the Premier League commission, in relation to the Premier League disciplinary matter.
“The club’s firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.
“We will continue to respect due process and are necessarily restricted in what we can say further until all proceedings are complete.”
The Press Association understands City intend to present evidence to an appeal board that they say refutes the key finding of the original commission that owner funding was being disguised as sponsorship revenue.
The commission concluded more than £830 million (€972.2 million) of such funding was used to inflate revenues and enable the club to comply with Premier League and Uefa financial rules through a series of “sham” arrangements.
At the heart of the club’s appeal will be an insistence that government funding, provided via the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court (CPC), gave financial assistance to sponsors in the emirate to help them to fulfil their liabilities to City, rather than Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) company, which owns the club.
The 40-page core decision published on Tuesday shows the independent commission rejected the CPC explanation as “untrue” in its findings, adding: “We concluded that it was an ‘explanation’ that the club had concocted well after the event in an attempt to obscure and conceal the realities of the disguised funding scheme.”
Confirmation of the appeal means the lengthy process still has some way to run, while the Football Association opened the possibility of its own action in a statement on Friday.
“The independent commission’s decision has significant implications for the integrity of the game,” said the statement on thefa.com.
“As proceedings between the Premier League and Manchester City Football Club remain ongoing, we do not intend to comment further at this stage. We will, however, continue to monitor developments closely.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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