Rui Pinto, the hacker whose Football Leaks archive helped trigger the Premier League's investigation into Manchester City, will remain under witness protection after Portuguese authorities suspended a decision to withdraw it — a striking U-turn that followed an appeal, a public fundraising drive and warnings from his lawyers that his safety was in mortal danger.
The reversal, reported by BBC News, The Guardian, Portugal Resident and the pan-European digest Eurotopics, caps a turbulent few weeks in which Pinto appeared to have been stripped of the protected-witness status he has held for six years, only for the decision to be frozen pending further review.
The decision — and the U-turn
Portuguese authorities had moved to end Pinto's special protection status, a decision that would have left him without state security cover, relocation support or anonymity provisions. Outlets including Flashscore, Yahoo News and the Portuguese-language El-Balad reported that he had lost the status outright; Tribuna and The Sun framed it as protection being “revoked” after six years.
Pinto immediately appealed, telling Portuguese authorities he feared for his life. The New York Times reported that he asked them to reinstate protection over explicit safety fears, while his legal team warned of “dire consequences”.
His lawyers had warned that withdrawing protection would have “dire consequences”, while Pinto himself argued he faced mortal danger and said he was prepared to help British investigators in exchange for continued protection.
Within days, the picture changed. Portuguese officials suspended the decision to end the status, meaning Pinto — for now — remains a protected witness. The BBC described the development as authorities in Portugal “suspending” the termination; The Guardian called it a U-turn by the Portuguese state. Tribuna, which first reported that he had been stripped of the status, characterised the reversal as a “shock U-turn”.
Who is Rui Pinto?
Born in Portugal in 1988, Pinto is a self-taught hacker who, from 2015, assembled Football Leaks — an archive of millions of documents and emails covering European football's transfer dealings, image-rights contracts, agent commissions and tax arrangements. He passed the material to Der Spiegel and a network of European media partners, and in 2018 the German magazine published the “Man City emails”, which alleged the club had disguised payments and inflated sponsorship income.
The disclosures spawned investigations in several countries, including tax cases involving high-profile players and managers in Spain and Portugal, and reshaped how European football regulators examine club finances. In 2019 Pinto was arrested in Budapest, extradited to Portugal and held in preventive detention in Lisbon before being released. In 2023 he was convicted of hacking and attempted extortion and given a suspended sentence. He later founded Platforma, a whistleblowing portal.
The Manchester City dimension
The Premier League charged Manchester City in February 2023 with 115 alleged breaches of its financial rules — a figure later revised to 130 — covering a period from 2009 to 2023. A hearing before an independent commission ran from late 2024 into early 2025, and the club has consistently denied wrongdoing.
Several outlets, including the Daily Mail, Flashscore and MSN aggregations, framed the protection decision as landing “days after the club's guilty verdict” and “days after the Premier League found the club guilty of serious financial breaches”. City have rejected those characterisations, and the full written reasons of the commission have not been published — a divergence in framing that separates the tabloid coverage from the more cautious reporting of the BBC and The Guardian, which concentrated on Pinto's status rather than the club's.
What all outlets agree on is timing: the attempt to remove Pinto's protection came at the most sensitive moment in the case's history, raising questions about whether a key source of evidence would remain available to investigators and any subsequent appeal process.
A life in limbo
Pinto's personal circumstances have been central to the story. According to The Sun and TalkSport, he has no job and no home and says he faces death threats. The Daily Mail reported that he launched a fundraiser seeking £2.55m to fund his security and legal costs, describing the campaign as a direct response to losing protected status. Eurotopics asked the blunt question that has framed much of the continental coverage: “Portugal: whistleblower Rui Pinto in mortal danger?”
- Status: Protected witness status maintained after suspension of the termination decision.
- Legal history: Convicted of hacking and attempted extortion in 2023; suspended sentence.
- Financial position: No income, no fixed home; crowdfunding appeal for security and legal costs.
- Offer: Pinto has signalled willingness to cooperate with UK authorities in return for protection.
Why it matters
The case sits at the intersection of whistleblower protection, the integrity of football governance and the credibility of European justice systems. Whistleblower advocates argue that withdrawing protection from a figure facing documented threats would chill future disclosures; Portuguese authorities have not explained publicly why the termination was proposed, nor what prompted the suspension.
For Manchester City, the episode keeps Pinto's evidence in play at a moment when the commission's conclusions are being contested across media and, potentially, in arbitration. For Pinto, the reprieve is provisional: the decision has been suspended, not cancelled, leaving the 37-year-old whistleblower in the same precarious position he has occupied since 2019 — indispensable to the story, and unprotected from its consequences the moment the suspension lifts.
