‘Football Leaks’ whistleblower says he has ‘felony’ proof towards Man City
Football Leaks whistleblower Rui Pinto has dropped a bombshell on Manchester City – warning that he’s about to unleash a trove of documents which could spell trouble for the club.
The reigning Premier League champions deny alleged financial fair play breaches, with the Premier League probing 115 charges against the club. City have come out swinging, claiming they’ve got a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” to clear their name in hearings set for November.
But Pinto, tucked away in witness protection since 2020 after his identity as the Football Leaks mastermind was revealed, claims he’s dished out five hard drives that could nail the club. Back in 2018, he leaked some hacked City emails to the press but held back the bulk of the goods, which he reckons he’s now passed on to the powers that be.
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“The Man City releases showed amounts of money being paid into by the club that were not mentioned to the football authorities,” Pinto claimed at the OffShore-Alert Marbella Conference, as reported by 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.”
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Pinto’s legal counsel said: “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,” reports the Mirror.
In 2016, Pinto stirred up a storm in football with a leak of more than 18 million damning documents. While hiding under the name “John”, he fervently asserted his status as a whistleblower, not a hacker.
However, he ended up receiving a four-year suspended sentence for 90 charges including hacking and extortion from a Portugal court in September. In another case dawning on him in Portugal, he faces an avalanche of 377 charges.
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Major clubs like City were allegedly plunged into turmoil due to Pinto’s expose. Specifically, City faced a UEFA ban for financial fair play issues, which was later consistently squashed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, along with Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, and Real Madrid.
Openly confessing to receiving death threats, Pinto remarked: “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 initially faced a hefty £26.9million fine and a two-year ban from European competition for breaching financial fair play regulations between 2012 and 2016. However, in a dramatic twist in 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned the punishment, clearing City of “disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions”.
While CAS noted City did “fail to cooperate with Uefa authorities”, it still scrapped the ban. City have consistently denied any allegations of misconduct.
