Rui Pinto: the hacker behind Football Leaks whose disclosures helped trigger Premier League charges against Manchester City

Rui Pinto, the Portuguese computer hacker behind the Football Leaks website, published a trove of confidential Manchester City documents that contributed to Premier League charges and, on Friday, the club being found guilty of the majority of the 115 counts.

BBC Sport travelled across Europe to investigate Pinto’s role, speaking to a former teacher, a politician who has campaigned for whistleblower protection, journalists who worked on the leaks, a former Manchester City financial adviser and attendees at Pinto’s court hearings to piece together his background and the fallout from Football Leaks.

Mario Falcao, Pinto’s former geography teacher, described him as a “perfectly normal pupil. He was nice, with his spiky hair, he was quite sociable but not extrovert,” and said Pinto “had a good relationship with the teachers, although he did miss these classes quite often. His father was always on top of things, so in the end he passed quite easily.” Pinto grew up in Vila Nova de Gaia, attended Escola Secundaria Almeida Garrett, and his father, Francisco, worked in a shoe factory and later as an antiques dealer; his mother died when he was 11.

Pinto established Football Leaks in 2015 with the stated aim of exposing “the hidden side of football.” Antonio Varela, the Portuguese journalist first contacted by the site, recalled receiving the initial email and said of republishing the material: “We realised that [Football Leaks] got the information illegally. But since the moment they publish the information on the site, that's public information. You can't ignore that. Ethically, it's complicated, but the public interest is more relevant than the ethical issue. That was the conclusion.” Early revelations related to Portuguese clubs including Benfica and FC Porto, with later disclosures touching on prominent players, clubs and agents.

Pinto provided tens of millions of documents to Der Spiegel and other outlets in the European Investigative Collaborations consortium; “In all, Pinto provided more than three terabytes - equivalent to about 3,000 copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica - of information,” the reporting records. Christoph Winterbach, a data journalist involved in examining the material, said: “In the beginning it was very much a fascinating feeling of like a child in a candy store,” and described the forensic verification process required before publication. Winterbach later met Pinto in 2019 while Pinto was in custody and in a subsequent interview in witness protection called him “one of the most important whistleblowers that we have in Europe or maybe the world.”

Pinto’s legal troubles have been extensive. He was arrested in Hungary in 2019 and extradited to Portugal, where he has spent time in solitary confinement, under house arrest and in witness protection. In 2023 he received a four-year suspended sentence after being found guilty of attempted extortion, illegal access to data and breach of correspondence; a separate trial in France produced a six-month suspended sentence. Pinto’s latest trial began in Lisbon in January last year; court reporting described substantial security measures, and Pinto declined to disclose his address in court for security reasons.

Reactions to Pinto’s work are sharply divided. Former MEP Ana Gomes, who has met him in prison and testified on his behalf, said: “What he has exposed is very important. In Portugal, definitely he is by far the most important whistleblower. He should be made an ally of our judicial and criminal investigative authorities. He has helped the authorities of other European countries in going after the corrupt and the criminals, instead of being the subject of this judicial prosecution by the choice of our public prosecutors.” By contrast, Benfica’s lawyer Rui Patricio told the court Pinto was “no more, no less than a burglar” who used “illegal and condemnable methods,” and outside the hearing added: “Our argument is very, very simple. He's a hacker, period, just like that. What he did is not allowed - it's a crime and there are no excuses. It's very, very simple. Very, very straightforward.” Jose Carlos Freitas said public opinion “look at him as a thief” for the majority, while Antonio Varela placed Pinto “in the middle [between whistleblower and criminal hacker]”.

The disclosures from Football Leaks have continued to shape legal and regulatory proceedings, notably the Premier League’s case against Manchester City which was brought in February 2023. Pinto has monitored that case from witness protection, and his lawyer Francisco Texeira da Mota said: "I think it's important for him because it's very difficult to be like he is, living a very difficult life, more or less hiding, because he made some revelations, he whistle-blowed lots of important things, namely about Manchester City. "So it would be important for him to feel vindicated that it was useful, that something happened, because what of what he said." Stefan Borson, a former City financial adviser, warned of wide-ranging consequences if the core allegations were proven: "I think for City, really, the whole of the Sheikh Mansour era is at stake if the core allegations are proven against the club. "I think the consequences could be very far reaching for the club, and it would be a very difficult thing for them to deal with. "Over time, clearly there would have to be some kind of reset. I think in many ways the Premier League is a loser either way."