According to ESPN, while Pinto cooperated with the Man City investigation, he should not be considered a hero.

ESPN has commented that Rui Pinto, founder of Football Leaks, cooperated with the Man City investigation, but this does not make him a hero.

It's worth reiterating that the Manchester City case, which shook English football to its core, brought self-taught hacker Rui Pinto—a college dropout—into the public eye.

If he had not provided and shared over 70 million documents to German magazine Der Spiegel in 2016, triggering a massive "Football Leaks" investigation over the following two years, Manchester City would not have faced scrutiny from UEFA, the Premier League, and other bodies that could intervene after the current proceedings conclude.

Frankly, no one would have had legal grounds to do so. History might have presented a different version: Manchester City, acquired by Abu Dhabi United Group in 2009, made substantial investments, saw revenues spike, dominated football, and complied with all financial rules presented to them. (The sole exception was in 2014, when they violated UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules and eventually signed a three-year settlement agreement.)

However the Manchester City case ultimately concludes—whether they're relegated from the Premier League, Sheikh Mansour pays hundreds of millions in fines and compensation, or the club overturns most or all charges on appeal—the case should serve as a wake-up call to football administrators. The message is clear: football needs better regulation and greater transparency.

One thing is certain regardless of the outcome: the system failed. Either Manchester City committed massive wrongdoing (to borrow the hearing's language) and the system failed to detect and stop them until violations were complete; or the Premier League was so inept that it fell victim to a conspiracy by traditional clubs, ultimately conducting eight years of fruitless investigation. Neither outcome is good; in fact, both are deeply embarrassing for the world's most successful league.

What should better regulation and transparency look like? Look at the NFL. In the NFL, information about salaries, sponsorships, and other revenue is shared not just with the league, but with league teams and the players' union. This creates a virtuous cycle of self-regulation and makes financial fraud difficult to pull off. (Difficult, but not impossible—longtime San Francisco 49ers fans can attest to that.)

In the Premier League, too much is kept strictly confidential under the guise of "competitive advantage." Not just Manchester City, but nearly every club discloses as little as legally possible, operating as if they were ordinary corporations. This ignores the crucial public trust underpinning the world's most popular sport.

All of this ultimately circles back to Pinto.

Would it be fair to call him a hero, given that he might have saved football? He would say so himself. In fact, he testified in court that he is a whistleblower exposing corruption in football. He originally wrote on the Football Leaks website: "The sport we love is rotten, and now is the time we can no longer stay silent." Yet his approach was clearly chaotic, simply dumping tens of millions of documents directly online.

Some of these documents pointed to wrongdoing and led to investigations and prosecutions. (This included not only Manchester City but also an illegal third-party ownership scheme involving a company called Doyen Sports, and tax evasion allegations involving Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, José Mourinho, and Luka Modrić, among others.)

Other documents contained interesting and potentially newsworthy information, such as evidence that European Super League plans existed as early as 2016, or that Paris Saint-Germain used racial criteria in player recruitment. Some content amounted to little more than football anecdotes. For example, Liverpool included a 1 million pound bonus in Balotelli's contract if he was sent off fewer than three times in a season.

Or that Cristiano Ronaldo's staff members (including his nanny, chef, and driver) had to sign non-disclosure agreements barring them from revealing anything about his private life until 70 years after his death. Or that Ronaldo once earned 1.1 million euros for four hours of photography, signing five jerseys, and posting two social media messages for a Saudi telecom company. Or that Real Madrid deliberately underreported Gareth Bale's transfer fee so that Cristiano Ronaldo, earning slightly less, could remain the most expensive player in history.

The vast majority of leaked documents contained mundane information with little to no news value. I recall spending hours—time I can never get back—reading a contract for Ait-Nouri, a young left-back from Angers, on Pinto's original Football Leaks website before he partnered with Der Spiegel. That document contained nothing but a teenager's private information.

Two other facts complicate Pinto's work. One is his 2015 attempt to extort Doyen Sports. A Lisbon court convicted him in 2023 and handed down a four-year suspended sentence. He demanded 500,000 euros from company CEO Nelio Lucas in exchange for not releasing hacked documents. Pinto has always maintained his innocence, claiming he only wanted to "verify" the documents, but the court disagreed.

The second is that it remains unclear how he obtained these documents and whether he was acting under direction or alone. His story has also changed over the years. He initially claimed he received the documents, but later admitted to hacking some victims. At this point, the picture becomes murkier. Doyen Sports was clearly hacked, and Man City likely was too. However, the sheer volume and variety of documents suggest that in some cases Pinto was either an extraordinarily skilled hacker or did not act alone.

It's worth noting that Pinto has also paid a price for his actions. He spent years hiding in Hungary and was extradited to Portugal in 2019. He has made many enemies worldwide and now has a criminal record. He has claimed multiple death threats, claims credible enough that the Portuguese government included him in a witness protection program in 2020—though his lawyer said that protection would end on Saturday, October 10. Pinto posted on social media last Friday announcing a crowdfunding campaign to cover security costs.

If there is a silver lining to this entire story, it is not just holding tax evaders and wrongdoers accountable if the appeals process upholds the independent commission's ruling. More importantly, it provides football an opportunity to improve self-regulation and allows tax authorities to play a better role. Light and darkness coexist in Rui Pinto's actions, and we may never know which guided him. But without him, there would be no light at the end of the tunnel. For that, we should be grateful.

AI 번역.

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