Football Leaks whistleblower Rui Pinto stripped of protected-witness status in Portugal

Rui Pinto, the whistleblower whose Football Leaks disclosures helped trigger the Premier League’s investigation into Manchester City’s finances, will no longer be a protected witness in Portugal, documents seen by the Guardian show.

The decision was taken on Wednesday 30 September 2026. Pinto has been a protected witness since 2020, after agreeing to grant Portuguese authorities access to millions of files gathered before his arrest.

Portuguese police judged the risk to his safety “low”, despite an assault on him in Lisbon in April that left him with a bruised eyebrow. The incident was reported to police, but no formal complaint was filed. Pinto has been advised to “exercise caution with family contacts” and to avoid social media.

Reacting to City’s guilty verdict, Pinto called it a “historic decision for English football”, and said the club’s executives had “acted with complete impunity, challenging everyone and everything”. He added: “Years and years of cheating, lying and manipulation will finally have consequences.”

Pinto also accused FIFA president Gianni Infantino of having done “everything in his power” to ensure City and Paris Saint-Germain would only be fined for contravening UEFA financial rules when Infantino was UEFA’s general secretary.

The tribunal found City guilty of 114 charges spanning nine seasons, ruling the club had disguised more than £900m in funding through sham commercial contracts and false accounting. City deny wrongdoing and have until Friday to appeal.

Pinto was handed a suspended four-year sentence in September 2023 for attempted extortion, illegal access to data and breach of correspondence.