Football Leaks whistleblower Rui Pinto has warned Manchester City that he is about to release millions of documents which will “find criminal relevancy” against them.
City are alleged to have breached financial fair play regulations and the Premier League are investigating 115 charges. The reigning Premier League champions have denied the allegations and insist they have a "comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence" to support their case, which will be heard in November.
But Pinto, who has been in a witness protection programme since 2020 after being unmasked as the man behind the Football Leaks revelations, says he has handed over five hard drives which will implicate the club. The 35-year-old shared some hacked City emails with the media in 2018, but kept hold of the vast majority, which he says have now been shared with the relevant authorities.
“The Man City releases showed amounts of money being paid into by the club that were not mentioned to the football authorities,” Pinto told the OffShore-Alert Marbella Conference via The Sun. “These documents are from part of the Premier League investigation into City. I have now handed five hard drives to French and German authorities with millions of documents, including more on City and I have described what is on each. I am confident they will find criminal relevancy.”
A legal representative for Pinto added: “We have been approached by investigators to share information regarding Manchester City that has not been released before. We haven’t released the information yet but we have a massive file of Manchester City-related documents that has yet to be released. The files will be published at some point, we cannot say when but we will do it.”
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Pinto began leaking a trove of more than 18 million documents in 2016 which sent shockwaves through football. Using the pseudonym “John”, he has always claimed that he is a whistleblower rather than a hacker, but was handed a four-year suspended sentence by a court in Portugal in September being charged with 90 offences including hacking and extortion. He is also facing 377 charges in a different case in Portugal.
Clubs allegedly affected by Pinto’s work included City, who were handed a UEFA suspension over financial fair play irregularities that was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Manchester City's financial fair play case will be heard in November (Getty Images)Pinto has received death threats and said: “I know that a group of European football clubs were investigating me. They met in London and were very worried about new leaks. They were looking to gather information about my life.”
City were initially slapped with a £26.9million fine and a two-year ban by UEFA for breaking financial fair play rules between 2012 and 2016. But the ruling was overturned in 2020 after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) cleared them of "disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions". Cas said City did "fail to cooperate with Uefa authorities" but still overturned the decision.
City have denied any suggestion of wrongdoing.
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