Hackers Threaten To Unload Manchester City Evidence To Trick FFP

Manchester City received 115 charges of FFP violations (Instagram/@mancity).

JAKATA - Football Leaks hackers threatened to shake up English football by revealing the fraud scandal committed by Manchester City.

Football Leaks, fronted by Rui Pinto, plans to send hundreds of e-mail containing evidence from club documents to show that City has deceived Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

Pinto previously in the Football Leaks scandal gained access to thousands of emails by The Citizens and handed over some to the media in 2018. However, he still holds most of the documents.

Information previously leaked by Pinto includes reports with details of former manager Roberto Mancini's contract as well as image rights agreements involving Yaya Toure agents and emails about club sponsorship earnings.

The 35-year-old man is now preparing to release new documents.

Manchester City is scheduled to hold trial at the end of this year. They received 115 Premier League charges on suspicion of financial deviation.

However, it looks like the trip forward to the trial will be difficult considering the threat from Rui Pinto is very serious.

It is suspected that some of the evidence that will be used in the trial later is the result of Football Leaks.

The Citizens, who won their fourth Premier League title in a row, are accused of hiding payments through third parties by disguising them as sponsorship revenues.

Pinto, in the witness protection program since 2020, had opened his voice regarding this matter.

"Manchester City showed some money paid by the club that was not disclosed to the football authorities.

"These documents are part of a Premier League investigation into City. I have now handed over five hard drives to French and German authorities with millions of documents, including more about City."

"I have explained what is in each of the hard drives. I'm sure they will find criminal relevance," Pinto told OffShore-Alert Marbella Conference from his hiding house.

Meanwhile, Pinto's attorney said that his client had been approached by investigators to provide evidence related to Manchester City.

"We have been approached by investigators to share information about Manchester City which has not been released before."

"We haven't released the information yet, but we have a lot of documents related to Manchester City that haven't been released yet."

"The files will be published someday. We can't say when, but we will," he said.

So far, City is still denying all allegations and any mistakes it has attached to them.

"The club welcomes the review of this issue by the Independent Commission, to unilaterally consider all the undisputed evidence available to support its position."

"Therefore, we hope this issue is resolved for good," said Manchester City's statement.

Pinto emerged as an enemy of major European clubs. Previously, the Portuguese man's action forced UEFA to impose sanctions on a two-year display ban in Europe that had never happened before for violating FFP regulations against City.

However, the suspension was successfully canceled by the club. In fact, Pep Guardiola's club was free from a fine of almost 25 million pounds.

In addition, Pinto also had time to open details of the salaries of superstars Lionel Messi and Neymar, as well as allegations of tax evasion by Cristiano Ronaldo.

It didn't stop there, Pinto also shared with information about Gareth Bale's 86 million move from Tottenham to Real Madrid in 2013.

Pinto kemudian diketahui juga membocorkan rencana pembentukan Liga Super Eropa pada 2018.

Despite revealing a number of frauds in football, Pinto had to receive a six-month trial sentence in November 2023 after illegally admitting to access Paris Saint-Germain's classified information.

Not only that, he has also received various death threats since the Football Leaks scandal.

"I know a group of European football clubs are investigating me. They met in London and were very worried about a new leak. They wanted to gather information about my life," Pinto said again.