The hacker who put City in trouble, Rui Pinto: Infantino knew, he also covered up for PSG

Rui Pinto, the Portuguese man who opened “Pandora’s box” on the breaches of the English club and others, has revealed further details about the case.

In September 2015, the site “Football Leaks” began publishing millions of confidential documents about the world of football. Details were revealed about the contracts of great champions, projects for the Super League, as well as tax breaches and irregular financial dealings by clubs and investment funds.

The man who opened “Pandora’s box” in football was Rui Pinto, a self-taught Portuguese hacker and former history student. His publications, also through the German daily “Der Spiegel”, influenced the bringing of charges for financial breaches by Manchester City. The English club has always denied the breaches, claiming the documents were untrue.

Pinto was arrested in Hungary and extradited to Portugal in 2019. He was accused of illegal access to computer systems, violation of correspondence and attempted extortion against “Doyen Sports”, the fund involved in the first leak of documents. The Portuguese man has always rejected the accusations and has called himself a whistleblower who exposed irregularities in football.

In April of the following year Pinto was cleared of the charges in a second trial in Portugal, after the court assessed the challenges as invalid.

Now that City has been found guilty of financial irregularities, Pinto has spoken again about the case on his profile on X, sparing no accusations especially against Gianni Infantino, about whom the hacker uses harsh words:

“In 2014 there was a man who had knowledge of Manchester City’s irregularities. That man today runs FIFA. Gianni Infantino, at the time UEFA’s general secretary, abused his authority and distributed confidential documents. He quickly bypassed the Investigative Chamber, exploiting his power to ensure that Manchester City and PSG received only a fine. In that way he avoided a deeper investigation, which would have brought exclusion from the Champions League.

These details were revealed through ‘Football Leaks’. From his behaviour as UEFA general secretary and then as FIFA president, I can personally say that Gianni Infantino became a cancer for football. He should have no place in the future of this game,” Pinto wrote.