Rui Pinto: The Manchester City Whistleblower Fearing For His Life

The Manchester City financial case has taken another extraordinary turn, and this time, the focus is on the man whose leaks helped bring the investigation to light.

Rui Pinto, the founder of Football Leaks, is set to lose his witness protection in Portugal on October 10.

The 37-year-old whistleblower says he has received multiple death threats and fears an assassination attempt, while his lawyers argue that removing his protection leaves him in an extremely vulnerable position. The timing is striking.

Pinto was informed on September 30 that his protection would be terminated, just hours after an independent Premier League commission found Manchester City guilty of breaches of the competition's financial regulations.

City's verdict followed an investigation that was substantially built around information originating from Pinto's Football Leaks operation.

Pinto is a Portuguese computer hacker who founded Football Leaks in 2015.

Operating under the pseudonym “John”, Pinto began publishing confidential documents from the football industry, exposing contracts, transfer agreements, salaries and financial arrangements involving some of the biggest names in European football.

The leaks eventually grew into one of the largest collections of confidential football documents ever released.

They included information involving players such as Lionel Messi and Neymar, as well as major European clubs and football organisations.

But Pinto's activities were controversial from the beginning. He was arrested in Budapest in 2019 after Portuguese authorities sought his extradition over alleged cybercrime and attempted extortion.

He was eventually returned to Portugal and, after cooperating with authorities, entered the country's witness protection programme in 2020.

Between 2016 and 2018, Football Leaks released more than 70 million confidential documents through the European Investigative Collaborations network.

Among those documents were files relating to Manchester City's finances. The information became an important part of the material that ultimately led UEFA and then the Premier League to investigate the club.

The Premier League's independent commission has now found City guilty of all charges relating to alleged financial reporting breaches over the nine seasons from 2009-10 to 2017-18, as well as three of four charges concerning the club's alleged failure to cooperate with the investigation.

Manchester City deny wrongdoing and have appealed the commission's findings.

That means the story Pinto began more than a decade ago has now resulted in one of the biggest disciplinary cases in Premier League history.

Now just as that verdict arrived, his own situation dramatically changed.

Portuguese authorities have decided that Pinto's special protection programme will end on October 10. The reasons behind that decision have not been publicly detailed.

Pinto's lawyers say the decision was taken without giving him an opportunity to be heard and have requested that the Portuguese government reconsider it.

They have also asked authorities to disclose the material behind the latest risk assessment and to maintain his protection while the matter is challenged.

Pinto's legal team says he will lose access to the confidential residence provided under the programme and faces uncertainty over whether police protection will continue.

They argue this is particularly concerning because Pinto was assaulted in Lisbon in April and because the legal consequences of his disclosures are still unfolding.

Pinto has been far more direct about the situation. He says he has received multiple death threats and believes there is a serious risk of an assassination attempt.

He has announced plans to relocate to an undisclosed location indefinitely. He has also launched a fundraising campaign seeking €3 million to help with his relocation and security.

His lawyers have similarly argued that the threats against him are not theoretical.

However, it is important to distinguish between what Pinto and his legal team allege and what has been independently established.

The Portuguese authorities have decided to end his protection, but the publicly available reporting does not establish that Pinto is definitely the target of an assassination plot.

His lawyers are challenging the decision precisely because they believe the authorities have underestimated the risk.

The most fascinating part of the Rui Pinto story is that he doesn't fit neatly into either the “hero” or “criminal” label.

His leaks exposed information that generated investigations across European football.

At the same time, he obtained private information illegally and was convicted in Portugal of cybercrime and attempted extortion, receiving a suspended sentence in 2023.

He was also convicted in France in a separate case involving the hacking of PSG's executives' emails.

But in April 2026, Pinto was acquitted in a separate Portuguese trial involving hundreds of allegations relating to unauthorised access to emails after the court ruled the charges invalid.

That complicated history is why his story continues to divide opinion. To some, he is a whistleblower who exposed serious problems within football. To others, he is a hacker who obtained private information illegally.

Both parts of his history are important.

The timing makes the latest development even more extraordinary. For years, Pinto's name was associated with Football Leaks and the revelations that came out of it.

Now, after an independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of extensive Premier League financial breaches, the consequences of those leaks have become impossible to ignore.

But City have appealed the commission's findings, meaning the legal and sporting story is not finished.

At the same time, Pinto is fighting a battle of his own.

His lawyers are appealing the decision to terminate his protection, while Pinto says he is preparing to leave Portugal because he no longer feels safe.

The man who spent years exposing football's secrets now finds himself at the centre of another extraordinary football story.

While the Manchester City case will continue through the appeal process, the question surrounding Rui Pinto is much more personal:

What happens to the man who helped uncover it all?