Football Leaks founder Rui Pinto, whose disclosures helped trigger the Premier League’s investigation into Manchester City, is prepared to cooperate with British authorities in exchange for protection from threats, The Guardian reported Saturday.
The 37-year-old Portuguese whistleblower could provide additional documents concerning Manchester City’s financial affairs as part of his cooperation, according to the report.
Pinto’s priority is to assist authorities, provided adequate security measures are put in place, the newspaper reported.
His offer comes a day after Pinto said he was preparing to leave Portugal for an undisclosed location after being informed that his participation in the country’s witness protection program would end Oct. 10.
Pinto said Friday that he had received “multiple death threats” and feared an assassination attempt.
“Given these circumstances, I have no alternative but to relocate, within the next few days, to an undisclosed location for an indefinite period of time, due to the multiple death threats I have received and the serious risk of an assassination attempt against me,” he wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Pinto has been in Portugal’s witness protection program since 2020 after agreeing to cooperate with authorities and give them access to millions of files he had acquired.
His lawyers have appealed the decision to end his protection and asked Portuguese authorities to disclose how the latest risk assessment was conducted.
Pinto obtained confidential emails and financial records that were shared with German magazine Der Spiegel in 2018 and later formed part of investigations into Manchester City’s finances and alleged breaches of financial rules.
An independent Premier League commission this week found Manchester City guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the league’s financial rules between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.
The commission also found the club guilty of the majority of charges related to its failure to cooperate with the investigation.
Manchester City has appealed the ruling, saying the commission’s opinion contained “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact” and maintaining its innocence.
