Man City whistleblower Rui Pinto says he fears for his life as protection ends
Rui Pinto, the 37-year-old founder of Football Leaks, will leave Portugal's witness protection programme on 10 October. He says the decision leaves him in a life-threatening situation. It comes just days after Manchester City's guilty verdict in the financial case his leaks helped to trigger, according to The Star.
Pinto set up Football Leaks in 2015 to publish confidential material from inside football. In 2018 he passed emails and financial records relating to City to German magazine Der Spiegel, which used them to investigate the club's finances and alleged breaches of financial fair play, the rules designed to stop clubs spending far beyond what they earn BBC.
Those disclosures had a long reach. They prompted UEFA and then the Premier League to open investigations into City's financial affairs, according to The Guardian. The documents obtained by Pinto pointed to breaches of league rules between 2009 and 2018.
Pinto joined witness protection in 2020 after agreeing to cooperate with the Portuguese authorities and hand over files gathered through the Football Leaks operation. Six years on, that protection is ending. His lawyers said the move leaves him at heightened risk while legal cases linked to the leaks are still going on, including the case involving City.
He has spoken in stark terms about that risk. Pinto cited multiple death threats and the serious danger of an assassination attempt. He said he has moved to an undisclosed location for an indefinite period. Fear has followed him before. He wore a bulletproof vest during his first trial in 2020.
His own legal record is complex. In Portugal he was convicted of offences including illegal access to data and attempted extortion and received a four-year suspended sentence. Earlier this year he was acquitted in a second trial of 241 counts of illegally accessing email accounts belonging to Portuguese sports bodies including Benfica.
Pinto argues he is a whistleblower, not a hacker. He says he acted to expose corruption in football. He has now set up a fundraising page to help him live through what he describes as a situation created by the Portuguese state.
What makes this stand out is the contrast. One man's files helped football's authorities pursue one of the richest clubs in the world. Now that same man says he cannot count on the state to keep him safe. For fans, this is a reminder that the game's biggest off-pitch stories are not only about points and titles. They are about people, and the price they pay when secrets come out.
