Rui Pinto, the founder of Football Leaks, is set to lose his state protection in Portugal on October 10, just days after the Premier League found Manchester City guilty of financial breaches. The 37-year-old has been under state protection since 2020, including a safe house, but Portuguese authorities confirmed on Wednesday that he will no longer be deemed a witness at risk.
Pinto has been celebrating on social media since the verdict was made public. "Years and years of cheating, lying and manipulation will finally have consequences," he wrote in one of several posts on X. However, his lawyers have appealed the decision to strip his protection, calling it "shameful actions" and even akin to "an act of state terrorism".
Threats and Vulnerability
In a statement on Friday, Pinto's lawyers said his situation is now critical. "The threats against him are not merely theoretical; he was assaulted in Lisbon last April," the statement reads. They added that his revelations implicated powerful figures with vast resources, and many legal proceedings are still ongoing, including the Premier League's independent commission decision regarding Manchester City.
The lawyers warned that being "abruptly deprived of his protected housing and plunged into a state of extreme precariousness" would make Pinto more vulnerable than at any time since 2020. He has been advised to avoid social media, not to contact his family, and to avoid crowded places.
Hacker with a Criminal Conviction
Pinto is a hacker with a criminal conviction. In September 2023, the former history student from Porto was given a suspended four-year sentence after being found guilty of attempted extortion, illegal access to data, and breach of correspondence, following leaks from Doyen Sports, an investment fund and management agency. He was extradited from Hungary, where he had been living in Budapest, to Portugal in March 2019.
It was in November 2018 that German publication Der Spiegel used Pinto's hacked documents to allege City had been breaking financial rules. That reporting led to charges from UEFA and then the Premier League case. UEFA initially banned City from European competitions for two years, but the verdict was later overturned on appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The Premier League's case used emails from City employees that were hacked by Pinto and which City did not disclose to the league.
Uncertain Future
Thanks in part to Pinto's leaks, the Premier League were able to go further than UEFA with their allegations, 114 of which have since been proven. Now, with his state protection and safe house about to be taken away, the man who kickstarted the whole affair faces an uncertain future.
