The Citizens shouldn’t be worried, according to former Man City financial advisor Stefan Borson, even though Football Leaks hacker Rui Pinto vowed to disclose “hundreds of damning club emails and documents.”
In May, the Citizens won the Premier League for the fourth time in a row. Pep Guardiola’s team deserved to win the championship again following a strong season-ending performance.
Man City was accused in February 2023 of violating more than a hundred financial fair play rules that had been in place since 2009.
Although there have been rumours that Man City, who have started a legal battle against the Premier League’s Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules, could be punished with points deductions or possibly kicked out of the competition if found guilty, the team has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and promised to fight their case.
Since Everton and Nottingham Forest were docked points for breaking the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations last season, many fans of other Premier League teams have grown impatient with the case’s lack of progress.
And now Football Leaks hacker Pinto, who earlier disclosed information about Roberto Mancini’s contract as well as other significant emails that were turned over to the police in 2018 as part of the Man City case.
Recipient of a witness protection programme since 2020, Pinto spoke by video link from his safe house to the OffShore-Alert Marbella Conference, saying, “The Man City releases showed amounts of money being paid into by the club that were not mentioned to the football authorities.”
These records are a component of the Premier League’s inquiry concerning City. Now that I have given five hard discs with millions of documents—including more on City—to the French and German authorities, I have also detailed the contents of each device.
“I have no doubt that they will discover criminal relevance.”
“We have been approached by investigators to share information regarding Manchester City that has not been released before,” a lawyer representing Pinto continued.
“We have a sizable file of Manchester City-related documents that we haven’t yet released, but we haven’t released the material either.
“We will publish the files at some point; we just don’t know when yet.”
Borson, a former financial advisor for Manchester City, is sceptical that the Premier League team “will be losing too much sleep over” Pinto’s warnings.
Borson told Football Insider, “I don’t think it makes much difference to the situation at all.”
“I believe that if he had substantial and significant documents that he wanted to disclose, he would have already shared them with the media or the appropriate authorities.
“If you thought these records were great, it seems strange that you would wait until 2024 or perhaps later to release such significant documents.
“As far as City is concerned, it’s the story that never dies, so I doubt they will sleep too much over it.
“I believe the Premier League will have the resources and access it believes it needs to present its case.”
