Who is Football Leaks hacker and why is he threatening to prove Man City FFP breach?

The well-known football hacker, Rui Pinto, has threatened to release incriminating emails and documents about Manchester City which could prove the Premier League club broke Financial Fair Play rules - but who is he?

The 35-year-old is a Portuguese citizen and emerged in the public eye after his controversial actions led to the creation of Football Leaks. He founded the website in 2014 and then proceeded to leak millions of documents that exposed confidential football transfer and contract information.

"The information Football Leaks made public - including player contracts, internal team financial documents and confidential emails - pulled back the curtain on the murky world of soccer finance, led to criminal tax prosecutions of several top players and even helped prompt officials in the United States to reopen a sexual assault investigation involving the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo.," wrote The New York Times.

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This included player earnings, tax avoidance plans and controversial details about third-party ownership. Following his antics, Pinto was arrested in Hungary in 2019 at the request of Portuguese authorities. Despite claims of attempted qualified extortion, violation of secrecy and illegally accessing information, he was released in August 2020.

Pinto has faced 90 criminal charges following his work after claims of computer fraud, attempted extortion and violating privacy of correspondence. He claimed his actions were in the 'public interest' while appearing in court. "The freedom to inform does not justify violations of privacy," a judge ruled.

She added: "The court has no doubt... It has clearly been established that he was hoping to get money. The court hopes that the regret [Rui Pinto has shown] is serious and that from now on he refrains from performing acts as described here."

He was handed a four-year suspended sentence and avoided jail time. But he has now resurfaced after claiming he will leak documents that will incriminate City once again. “The Man City releases showed amounts of money being paid into by the club that were not mentioned to the football authorities,” Pinto told the OffSHore-Alert Marbella Conference from his safehouse (via the Daily Mail).

“These documents are from part of the Premier League investigation into City. I have now handed five hard drives to French and German authorities with millions of documents, including more on City and I have described what is on each. I am confident they will find criminal relevancy.”

A legal representative for Pinto added: “We have been approached by investigators to share information regarding Manchester City that has not been released before.

“We haven't released the information yet but we have a massive file of Manchester City-related documents that has yet to be released. The files will be published at some point, we cannot say when but we will do it.”