Rui Pinto, the whistleblower whose leaked documents sparked the Premier League’s investigation into Manchester City’s finances, has lost his protected witness status in Portugal as of Wednesday.
Portuguese police have assessed the risk to Pinto’s safety as low, despite an assault on him in Lisbon in April and fallout from the City case. He has been advised to exercise caution with family contacts and avoid social media.
Pinto, 37, founded Football Leaks and has been a protected witness since 2020 after providing Portuguese authorities with millions of confidential files. He was handed a suspended four-year sentence in September 2023 on counts including attempted extortion and illegal data access, but has been praised by many supporters for exposing wrongdoing across world football.
His leaked documents were passed to German publication Der Spiegel and led to separate investigations by Uefa and the Premier League. City were found guilty of 114 charges on Tuesday, accused of disguising over £900m in funding through sham commercial contracts. The club’s deadline to appeal is Friday.
Pinto has been active on social media since City’s guilty verdict, calling it a “historic decision for English football” and attacking the club’s executives for acting “with complete impunity” and demonstrating “years and years of cheating, lying and manipulation”.
Written by PremClub News with the help of AI, using only facts from the reports listed on this page. How we rate stories · Editorial policy