play Live Sign upShow navigation menuplay Live Click here to searchsearchSign upEXPLAINERSport|FootballWho is Man City whistleblower Rui Pinto and what has become of him?A look into the Portuguese whistleblower who played a key role in the Premier League’s probe into City’s inquiry.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoPortuguese national Rui Pinto’s early work as a hacker focused on matters closer to home, with leaks around Portuguese football clubs Benfica and FC Porto [File: Ferenc Isza/AFP]By Anushe EngineerPublished On 1 Oct 20261 Oct 2026The whistleblower who triggered an investigation into Manchester City Football Club, which was found guilty of all but one of 115 charges in breach of Premier League financial misconduct rules this week, will no longer be granted witness protection, it was revealed on Wednesday.
Rui Pinto, 37, founder of the website Football Leaks, obtained private documents that showed City broke league rules from 2009 to 2018. The league said this included using “sham” commercial contracts “to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than 900 million pounds ($1.2bn)” with secret funding from its Abu Dhabi-based owners.
The league also said the investigation found City used schemes that enabled it to appear to be complying with financial rules. City, which could face sanctions ranging from a fine to expulsion from the league, denies wrongdoing and is expected to appeal by Friday.
Pinto has been a protected witness since 2020. So who is he and what happens to him now?
Pinto is a Portuguese computer hacker and activist whose work as a public interest whistleblower has exposed corruption that served as grounds for criminal investigations in several countries.
He was born and raised in Vila Nova de Gaia, near Porto. His early work focused on Portuguese football clubs Benfica and FC Porto.
Pinto was mostly self-taught in computing, having never received advanced education in the field. His school geography teacher, however, recalled him being “very good in computers” and was surprised when he was named as the founder of Football Leaks in 2019.
Pinto founded the website in 2015 under the pseudonym “John” to reveal “the principal protagonists in the dishonest football industry”. He was unmasked in January 2019 when he was arrested in Budapest on a European court order for alleged attempted extortion and cybercrimes.
Following his arrest, he was extradited to Portugal in March 2019 and remained in pre-trial detention until April 2020. He was given a four-year suspended sentence in September 2023 for illegally obtaining documents, committing other cybercrimes and attempted extortion. He was later acquitted on 241 separate counts in a second trial in April 2026 after the court ruled the charges were “invalid”.
The leaks revealed the salaries of Lionel Messi and Neymar. They also brought global attention to a rape allegation lawsuit involving Cristiano Ronaldo, which was later dismissed by a United States judge.
A French trial in 2023 resulted in a six-month suspended sentence for hacking emails of Paris Saint-Germain executives.
From 2016 to 2018, Pinto leaked more than 70 million confidential documents to a number of newspapers belonging to the European Investigative Collaborations consortium.
They included confidential documents related to some of the biggest clubs, players and organisations in the world. Those leaks ultimately became the basis of the Premier League’s charges against City, while Europe’s football governing body, UEFA, also launched a separate investigation.
Pinto has been a protected witness since August 2020 after agreeing to grant Portuguese authorities access to millions of files gathered before his arrest. His first trial in Portugal began a month later.
After his extradition to Portugal, he “has at various points been in solitary confinement, under house arrest and in witness protection”, according to a report by the BBC.
The UK’s Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday that Pinto would no longer be a protected witness by Portuguese authorities as police deemed his safety to be a low risk, despite him being assaulted in April. Pinto has, however, been advised to “exercise caution with family contacts” and to avoid social media.
Pinto has been vociferous about Manchester City on social media since the club’s financial misconduct scandal came to light last week, calling the conviction a “historic decision for English football”.
“From the very beginning, they have demonstrated a complete lack of respect for the rules, for the bodies responsible for overseeing and regulating the game, for the integrity of the competition, for the other clubs and, above all, for the fans,” he wrote on X following the verdict on Friday.
“Years and years of cheating, lying and manipulation will finally have consequences.”
Just hours before his witness protection was revoked on Wednesday, Pinto said FIFA President Gianni Infantino had become “a cancer on football and should have no place in the future of the game”.
