New Delhi: The large cloud that hangs above the heads of Manchester City’s period of dominance grows even darker as the hacker behind the ‘Football Leaks scandal’ Rui Pinto has claimed he has handed five hard drives to French and German authorities with millions of documents which will find ‘criminal relevancy’ agianst the club.
Manchester City have 115 financial fair play FFP charges for failure to provide accurate financial information. These charges include failure to provide accurate details for player and manager payments, failure to comply with UEFA’s rules including Financial Fair Play, breaching Premier League’s PSR rules, failure to cooperate with Premier League investigations and are expected to face a hearing for alleged financial irregularities.
The Portuguese national Pinto has been under witness protection since 2020. Despite being found guilty of attempted extortion and unauthorised access to data. He received a four-year suspended sentence from a Portuguese court last year and avoided prison.
He is currently in a safe-house and attended the OffShore-Alert Marbella Conference via video call, The Sun reports.
“The Man City releases showed amounts of money being paid into by the club that were not mentioned to the football authorities. These documents form 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,” the 35-year old was quoted by The Sun.
“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,” added Pinto’s legal representative.
Pep Guardiola’s side recently became the first side in Premier League history to lift the league title for four consecutive seasons but face huge legal hurdles in the future.
The FFP charges have been looming over the club’s head as questions are being raised behind the legality of their recent success.
–IANS