Rui Pinto, the Portuguese hacker whose Football Leaks documents unravelled Manchester City's decade of financial misconduct, now finds himself abandoned by the very state apparatus that once sheltered him. On October 10, Portugal will terminate his witness protection, leaving him — by his own account — exposed to assassination threats and forced into an undisclosed exile. His story asks an enduring question: what obligation do institutions bear toward those who hand them inconvenient truths, and what becomes of the whistleblower once the verdict is delivered?
Man City whistleblower faces removal from witness protection amid assassination fears
Whistleblower faces claimed assassination threats and multiple death threats, forcing indefinite relocation to undisclosed location after loss of witness protection.
A man whose leaked documents reshaped football now faces an uncertain future
Mark
So this man leaked documents that took down Manchester City—one of the biggest clubs in the world—and now the people protecting him are pulling the plug?
Mimi
That's the situation, yes. Pinto released confidential City files to Der Spiegel in 2018, and those documents became central to the Premier League's investigation. City was just convicted on all charges. But Pinto entered witness protection in 2020, and now Portugal is terminating that on October 10.
Luke
Wait—let's be careful here. Pinto says he faces assassination threats. But we should ask: who is making these threats? Has anyone been arrested? Are the threats documented, or are they his claim?
Mimi
That's a fair point. The source material doesn't specify who is making the threats or provide independent verification. His lawyers say the ongoing legal proceedings mean he's still at risk, but we don't have details on the nature or source of the threats.
Mark
So why would Portugal end his protection if he's genuinely in danger?
Mimi
That's the tension. Either authorities believe the threat has diminished, or they believe it was never as serious as Pinto claims. Or there could be bureaucratic or legal reasons we don't know about yet.
Luke
And there's another wrinkle: Pinto was convicted of illegal data access and attempted extortion. He's not a clean whistleblower in the legal sense. That might affect how authorities assess his credibility or the legitimacy of his protection claim.
Mark
Does that make the threats less real?
Luke
No, but it complicates the story. A person can be both a criminal and a genuine whistleblower, and both a criminal and genuinely in danger. The source material doesn't give us enough to know which is true here.
Mimi
What we do know is that Pinto says he's relocating to an undisclosed location and has set up a fundraising page. He's also attacking FIFA president Infantino, reviving old allegations about intervention in City's sanctions case.
Mark
Is that attack credible?
Luke
Again, we don't have independent verification. Pinto made these allegations in 2018. The fact that he's repeating them now, as his protection ends, could mean they're serious—or it could mean he's using them as leverage or distraction. We simply don't know.
Der Puls
- With days remaining before his protection expires, Pinto has gone public with claims of multiple death threats, signalling that he believes silence is no longer a viable survival strategy.
- His lawyers argue the danger is not diminishing but intensifying — the Manchester City appeal keeps his leaked documents, and the enemies they made, very much alive.
- Pinto's own criminal convictions for illegal data access and attempted extortion complicate his moral standing, giving authorities cover to frame the removal as routine rather than reckless.
- He has launched a public fundraising campaign and escalated attacks on FIFA president Infantino, turning personal crisis into political pressure in a bid to force a response.
- The institutions that once relied on his files — Portuguese prosecutors, Premier League investigators — have gone quiet, leaving a man who reshaped football's financial order to navigate an uncertain future largely alone.
Rui Pinto, the Portuguese hacker whose Football Leaks documents unravelled Manchester City's decade of financial misconduct, now finds himself abandoned by the very state apparatus that once sheltered him. On October 10, Portugal will terminate his witness protection, leaving him — by his own account — exposed to assassination threats and forced into an undisclosed exile. His story asks an enduring question: what obligation do institutions bear toward those who hand them inconvenient truths, and what becomes of the whistleblower once the verdict is delivered?
Rui Pinto, the hacker behind Football Leaks, is days away from losing the Portuguese witness protection that has shielded him since 2020. He announced on social media that he faces serious assassination threats and has been forced to relocate to an undisclosed location indefinitely — a situation he attributes directly to the state's decision to withdraw its cover.
Pinto's leaked documents were the foundation of football's most consequential financial investigation. In 2018, he passed confidential Manchester City emails and financial records to Der Spiegel, triggering scrutiny that eventually led the Premier League to formally charge the club. Last week, City was found guilty on all counts of financial regulation breaches spanning nearly a decade — a verdict the club is appealing.
His entry into witness protection came after he agreed to cooperate with authorities and surrender his Football Leaks files. His lawyers now argue that the ongoing legal proceedings mean the threats against him remain very much alive, and that removing him from the programme at this moment is not a measured decision but a dangerous one. Pinto has opened a fundraising page to sustain himself through what he calls a crisis of the state's making.
The picture is complicated by his own legal record. He was convicted of illegal data access and attempted extortion, receiving a suspended sentence, though he was acquitted earlier this year on 241 counts of illegally accessing accounts belonging to Portuguese sports bodies. The tension between his self-image as a whistleblower and his criminal history may well inform how seriously authorities take his fears.
Pinto has also intensified his public criticism of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, renewing 2018 allegations that Infantino intervened to shield Manchester City and PSG from UEFA sanctions — accusations landing at a moment when Infantino already faces significant pressure over plans to sell stakes in FIFA competitions to private investors. Whether Pinto's warnings gain traction or fade, the man whose documents rewrote football's financial rules now stands outside the protection of the institutions that once found him indispensable.
Rui Pinto, the Portuguese computer hacker whose leaked documents helped expose Manchester City's financial misconduct, is about to lose the protection that has kept him alive—or so he believes. On October 10, Portuguese authorities plan to terminate his participation in the country's witness protection programme, a decision Pinto says has forced him into what amounts to exile. He posted on social media Friday that he faces multiple death threats and what he describes as a serious risk of assassination, leaving him no choice but to disappear to an undisclosed location for an indefinite stretch.
Pinto's documents, released through his Football Leaks operation, became the backbone of one of football's most consequential investigations. In 2018, he shared confidential Manchester City emails and financial records with the German magazine Der Spiegel, which used them to scrutinize the club's spending and alleged violations of financial fair play rules. That reporting, built on Pinto's leaked material, eventually led to the Premier League's formal case against City. Last week, the club was found guilty on all charges related to breaches of the league's financial regulations spanning the 2009-10 through 2017-18 seasons—a verdict City has appealed.
Pinto entered Portugal's witness protection scheme in 2020 after agreeing to cooperate with authorities and hand over the files he had obtained through Football Leaks. The arrangement was meant to shield him from retaliation. Yet now, with the programme set to end in days, his lawyers argue that ongoing legal proceedings—including the Manchester City case itself—mean the threats against him remain acute. They say the decision to remove him from protection leaves him at heightened risk. Pinto has launched a fundraising page to help him survive what he characterizes as a crisis manufactured by the Portuguese state.
The situation is complicated by Pinto's own legal history. He was convicted in Portugal of illegal data access and attempted extortion, receiving a four-year suspended sentence. During his first trial in 2020, he wore a bulletproof vest as courtroom security was heightened. Earlier this year, he was acquitted of 241 counts of illegally accessing email accounts belonging to sports bodies in Portugal, including the club Benfica. His self-description as a whistleblower sits uneasily alongside these convictions, a tension that may shape how authorities view the danger he claims to face.
Pinto has also used his platform to escalate criticism of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, calling him a cancer on football and saying he should have no place in the sport's future. He has revived allegations from 2018 that Infantino intervened to help Manchester City and Paris St-Germain avoid financial fair play sanctions from UEFA. Infantino's position has already weakened in recent months following backlash over controversial plans to sell stakes in FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, to private investors. Pinto's accusations, whether they gain traction or not, arrive at a moment when the FIFA president faces mounting pressure from multiple directions.
The core question now is whether Pinto's fears are credible enough to warrant continued protection, or whether his removal from the programme reflects a judgment by Portuguese authorities that the threat has diminished. The BBC Sport has asked the Commission for the Protection of Victims of Crimes in Portugal for comment but has not yet received a response. What remains clear is that a man whose leaked documents reshaped football's financial landscape now faces an uncertain future, and the institutions that once sheltered him are about to step away.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
The decision to terminate his participation in the programme has put him in a life-threatening situation, forcing him to relocate to an undisclosed location for an indefinite period due to multiple death threats and serious risk of assassination.— Rui Pinto, via social media post
The decision to end his participation in the witness protection programme leaves him at heightened risk, given that legal proceedings stemming from the leaks remain ongoing.— Pinto's lawyers, in a statement
Möchten Sie die ganze Geschichte?
Das Original lesen bei BBC News ↗