Man City whistleblower breaks silence on 115 charges verdict after living under police protection for six years

Football whistleblower Rui Pinto has reacted to the 'historic' guilty verdict relating to almost all of Manchester City's 115 charges, having spent time in prison for his leaks.

In 2018, through his website Football Leaks, Pinto leaked a series of confidential club documents relating to various financial dealings in an attempt to 'expose' Manchester City.

Although to many, Pinto was simply a bad actor with sinister intentions, leading to him spending nearly a year in prison, his leaks eventually led to City's Premier League charges for breaching of financial rules, of which the club has now been found guilty of all but one of the 115 counts.

READ MORE: Man City release strongly-worded statement after being found guilty of 114 Premier League charges

Man City whistleblower Rui Pinto reacts to 115 charge verdict

Following the leaks, Pinto was arrested in Budapest on 16 January 2019 and detained before being extradited to Portugal on 21 March 2019 and placed in pre-trial prison in Lisbon.

He remained in that prison until April 2020, before being moved to house arrest and eventually released in August.

In September 2023, he received a four-year suspended sentence and has been under police protection living in safehouses, with his current whereabouts kept confidential, since 2020 for assisting police investigations in Portugal.

Therefore, when news that City had been found guilty on 114 of the 115 charges, it's safe to say that Pinto was very happy, with The Guardian revealing that he labelled it a “historic decision for English football” that vindicates his actions to leak the confidential documents.

He added that the findings prove that City went further than just bending the financial fair play regulations and instead completely undermined them with “structural manipulation and financial manoeuvring".

He said: “That meticulously orchestrated fraud will finally be subject to punishment, and the impact will not merely be turbulent, but truly devastating for the Cityzens."

In 2015, Pinto set up Football Leaks to, in his words, expose "the hidden side of football", targeting clubs like Man City and, more locally, Benfica and his own club, FC Porto, as well as some of the biggest players in the sport such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar.

When it came to Man City, his leaked information, which he gave to German publication Der Spiegel and its partners in the European Investigative Collaborations network, contained more than 70 million documents relating to the club's finances and other matters.

Since the verdict on the 115 charges was made public, Manchester City have maintained their innocence and are expected to appeal the decision.

Meanwhile Pinto, despite being acquitted in a second trial in which he faced 241 charges relating to his work with Football Leaks, could yet face more legal action despite his current work with Portuguese police.

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What punishments could Man City face?

As it stands, it is not known exactly what punishment the Premier League will hand to Man City for the guilty verdict, but the repercussions could be severe.

Potential punishments include fines, points deductions or even relegation from the Premier League.

The current list of potential punishments believed to be possible are as follows:

• Suspend a club from playing league matches
• Points deductions
• Recommend to the board that league matches be replayed
• Recommend to the board that the league expels the respondent club
• Order compensation
• Cancel or refuse registration of players
• Conditional punishment
• Order the club to pay costs
• Make such other order as it thinks fit

Of these, it appears the most likely could be, points deduction (immediate or suspended), financial penalties (immediate or suspended) or a removal from the Premier League.

But as for which, if any, of these punishments will be handed to City, we will just have to wait and see.

READ MORE: Man City to face legal action from Premier League clubs as update delivered