The Man City whistleblower whose hacked emails played a role in sparking the Premier League‘s investigation into the club’s finances has lost his witness protection in Portugal, and is looking to raise over £2.55million to ‘relocate within the next few days’.
Through his Football Leaks site, Pinto released thousands of confidential documents, including confidential emails from inside Man City, which formed the basis for reporting by Der Spiegel in 2018.
This in turn launched probes from both UEFA and the Premier League into the club’s practices, the latter’s investigation coming to a head this week with the confirmation of a guilty verdict on all of their serious breaches of the league’s financial regulations.
Due to his high profile, the hacker had been under witness protection in his native Portugal since 2020, after agreeing to cooperate with the authorities by providing information from his Football Leaks files.
In a statement shared by his lawyers, Pinto appealed to the Portuguese authorities for a decision laden with ‘serious consequences’ that was akin to ‘state terrorism’.
‘Rui Pinto, the whistleblower who was at the origin of Football Leaks, was notified last Wednesday that the special security program from which he has benefited since August 2020 will end on October 10,’ the statement read. ‘In just a few days, without having been heard beforehand, as the law requires, he will lose the protected and confidential residence that was assigned to him and will be forced to urgently find new housing, with no guarantee that police protection will be maintained.
Portuguese hacker and Football League founder Rui Pinto has seen his witness protection removed (pictured in 2023)
‘His situation is now critical. The threats against him are not merely theoretical: last April, he was assaulted in Lisbon. His revelations involved powerful figures with vast resources, and many of the resulting judicial proceedings are still ongoing, as evidenced by the decision issued just a few days ago by the Premier League’s independent commission regarding Manchester City.
‘Abruptly deprived of his protected residence and placed in a situation of extreme precariousness, Rui Pinto will now be more vulnerable than at any other moment since 2020.’
Pinto was handed a four-year suspended sentence in 2020 after he was found guilty by the Portuguese courts of illegal access to data and attempted extortion.
Such was his concern over his safety that he sported a bulletproof vest to attend his trial, which also saw a ramping-up of security measures around the courtroom.
The 37-year-old’s lawyers stressed that his cooperation with ‘Portuguese justice’ justified the continuation of his protection programme, and urged the Ministry of Justice to reconsider its position.
But with no u-turn in sight, Pinto took drastic action, launching a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign with a target of £2.55m (€3m) to allow him to urgently move to an ‘undisclosed location’.
Pinto cited ‘multiple death threats and the serious risk of an assassination attempt’ as reason for why such a flight from his home country might be necessary.
‘I am asking for everyone’s support to help me survive this serious situation created by the Portuguese State, which, as I have already stated, has knowingly decided to place my life at risk,’ his personal statement added.
In the early stages of the fundraiser, Pinto has managed to raise just over £14,000 (€16,582).
Earlier in 2026, Pinto was involved in another lengthy trial, which saw him acquitted of over 241 counts of illegally accessing email accounts belonging to a number of sporting organisations.
Man City continue to deny that they deployed ‘sham’ contracts and disguised over £900m in sponsorship payments in the wake of the Premier League sharing the core decision made by the independent commission on Tuesday.
They have since launched their appeal, with the club adamant that they hold ‘irrefutable evidence’ of their innocence.
Daily Mail Sport revealed that much of their defence will suggest that commercial contracts were paid for by the Abu Dhabi government rather than their owner.
But this could, in turn, counteract an argument made by Abu Dhabi airline – and key Man City sponsor – Etihad to the United States’ department of commerce, transportation and state in 2015.
As part of an investigation into state-owned airlines, Etihad shared the following statement: ‘We are government-owned and have been since our founding.
‘We are and have always been clear that we do not receive any subsidies from the Abu Dhabi government, and that we are financed through a combination of equity, shareholder and commercial loans.
‘Our shareholder’s equity and loans are not subsidies under any applicable definition; they are the means by which the Abu Dhabi government has sensibly invested in a successful business model.’
New Premier League rules state that a hearing must be held within 12 weeks of an appeal being lodged, with a decision due within 30 days of the hearing, which can only last five days, concluding. Any punishment could, therefore, be imposed this season.
