Portuguese whistleblower Rui Pinto, behind the ‘Football Leaks’, has handed over documents to French and German authorities relating to Manchester City’s alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial fair play rules.
He is back. Sentenced in November 2023 to six months in prison for hacking the email boxes of Paris Saint-Germain managers, Rui Pinto is this time attacking Manchester City. According to information from the tabloid The Sun, the Portuguese whistleblower, at the origin of the “Football Leaks”, threatens to reveal hundreds of damning emails and documents, which would prove the offenses of the Mancunian club vis-à-vis the financial fair play.
Five hard drives handed over to French and German authorities
Since 2015, the football world has been deeply shaken by the revelations of the “Football Leaks” on the salaries of Lionel Messi and Neymar, the rape accusation finally closed against Cristiano Ronaldo, ethnic profiling at PSG, etc. In 2018, Rui Pinto made revelations about the Skyblues about Roberto Mancini’s former contract and about image rights agreements involving Yaya Touré’s agents. This time, the hacker claims to have handed over “five hard drives to French and German authorities containing millions of documents, including some about City” as part of the Premier League’s investigation into City.
In 2023, English football authorities tasked an independent commission with examining potential breaches of the financial rules accused of Cityzens between 2009 and 2018, i.e. during the first nine seasons following the purchase of 80% of the club by Abu Dhabi. Accused of 115 financial infractions, Pep Guardiola’s team has not yet gone to cash, while Everton, for example, was sanctioned this season with a withdrawal of two points in the standings for non-compliance with the financial rules of the Premier League. City is suspected, among other things, of having concealed payments via third parties, disguising them as sponsorship income.
“The documents on Manchester City show sums of money paid by the club which were not mentioned to the football authorities,” commented Rui Pinto in comments reported by The Sun.
