More than a decade after Rui Pinto set up the Football Leaks website in a crusade triggered by the Fifa scandal in 2015, he finds himself in the middle of a growing storm. The former history student with trademark spiky hair who used to make extra cash selling books about the second world war has not held back with his statements on social media since Manchester City’s guilty verdict from an independent Premier League commission.
The first targets for Pinto, whose leaks of private documents prompted first Uefa then the Premier League to investigate City’s financial affairs, were what he alleged were the club’s “cheating” executives for demonstrating “a complete lack of respect for the rules”. On Wednesday he turned his attention to the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino.
Less than two hours later, Portuguese authorities confirmed Pinto would no longer be protected as a witness. That is understood to have come as a surprise to the 37-year-old, who finds himself without a job, a home or an income. He has been living in a safe house under protection and has never disclosed his location, and it is understood he has received no visitors.
The Guardian understands talks had been initiated to begin the process of reintegrating Pinto back into social and professional life. That initiative will be halted, leaving Pinto to fend for himself. He has been advised not to return home, contact family members or visit crowded places socially or for work.
Pinto has been a protected witness since 2020 after he agreed to grant Portuguese authorities access to millions of files acquired before his arrest in Budapest, where he moved after a year in the Hungarian capital as an Erasmus student. He has since become a cause célèbre who divides opinion in his homeland and been compared to Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.
The Premier League’s case against City drew heavily on evidence provided by Football Leaks, including the chief executive, Ferran Soriano, writing in an internal memo: “We will need to fight this and do it in a way that is not visible, or we will be pointed out as the global enemies of football.” City continue to protest their innocence and Soriano said this week the club would appeal on the basis that the commission’s verdict “contains clear, material errors of law, principle and fact and that it is unsafe”.
The question of whether the evidence should be used provoked huge public debate in Portugal, but the Premier League’s regulations stipulate that any investigation “shall not be bound by judicial rules governing the admissibility of evidence. Instead, facts relating to a breach of these rules may be established by any reliable means.”
That tallies with Pinto’s assertion in 2019 that it is “nonsense” to claim the data he provided is tainted because it was obtained illegally. “The documents are authentic,” he said. “That is what matters. This and the content. I don’t consider myself as a hacker, but as a citizen who acted in the public interest. My sole intention was to reveal illicit practices that affect the world of football.”
Pinto wore a bulletproof vest during his first trial in 2020 and came in through a dedicated entrance guarded by special forces. People attending the proceedings were searched three times and not allowed to bring mobile phones or computers into the courtroom. At the start of the trial, snipers were positioned on buildings near the courthouse.
He was given a suspended four-year sentence in September 2023 after being found guilty on counts of attempted extortion, illegal access to data and breach of correspondence. Pinto has always insisted he never received money but has admitted regret over asking Doyen Sports Investments for money after he obtained thousands of the agency’s internal emails.
He said to Der Spiegel in 2019: “I told myself: ‘If I allow them to buy me out now, I am no better than this whole business.’ So, I wrote to Doyen and told them to keep their money. Not a single cent was paid. What I did was very naive. Looking back now, I regret it. But I repeat that I deny having committed any criminal offence.”
That defence was found to be “not credible” by the judge, who said Pinto and his co-defendant, the lawyer Aníbal Pinto, were “well aware of the illegality of their conduct”. Rui Pinto started living in a safe house after being sentenced. He lost his mother to cancer when he was 11 and is permitted to communicate with his father occasionally. Even when he was in a relationship with the actor Mikaela Lupu, who he said he had met over “a glass of wine and a book” when announcing they had split last year, the security of the property was never compromised.
For six years, Pinto has been seen in public only twice. On one of those occasions, at a supermarket in Lisbon, he was accompanied by police officers and wore a cap and sunglasses. On the other, he was assaulted in an altercation believed to have been sparked for football-related reasons. It is understood that Pinto was left with a bruised eyebrow and the police were informed, although no complaint was filed.
The decision to end his witness protection has raised concerns for his welfare. Pinto is understood to fear for his safety. A bounty was reportedly placed on his head after the revelations made by Football Leaks and Luanda Leaks, which exposed the inner workings of the business empire of Africa’s richest woman, Isabel dos Santos. She denied corruption allegations.
The Guardian attempted to obtain clarification from the commission for special security programmes (CPES), a Portuguese body under the ministry of justice responsible for managing special witness protection programmes, as to why Pinto is no longer a protected witness but received no response. There has been speculation it could be a response to Pinto being accused of hacking the computer systems of PLMJ, the Portuguese law firm founded by José Miguel Júdice.
Júdice testified against Pinto during the Football Leaks trial, describing the episode as a theft that had caused him significant moral and psychological distress. Júdice is the father of Rita Alarcão Júdice, Portugal’s minister of justice since June 2025.
In April, Pinto was acquitted in a second trial of 241 counts of illegally accessing email accounts belonging to several Portuguese sports bodies, including Benfica, and to law firms, magistrates and the tax authority. None of the evidence he provided to the Portuguese authorities has resulted in any charges.
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