Rui Pinto: The man who hammered the nail in Manchester City’s coffin
The news that the Premier League is slated to make a return on 17 June has brought respite to all of its connoisseurs from across the world. League leaders Liverpool FC can breathe a sigh of relief too as it is now assured that they will get their hands on their championship title (which is about to come back into their cabinets after thirty years) after the rest of the season is played out. It is assumed that the Reds will get their hands on the league title, given that their closest competitors Manchester City are still a ways off from their direction, having garnered 57 points from their 28 games, which is 25 points lesser than Liverpool, who stand on top with 82 points having played a game more.
Manchester City’S woes
City, who are the defending champions of the Premier League, created records of sorts in each of the previous two seasons after they had won the title with a considerable amount of time (and matches) to spare. This time, however, their troubles are not confined just with the probability of washing their hands off a third consecutive title win. Their worries are expounded by the fact that they have been expelled from all European competitions (read the Champions League) by the UEFA for two years for severely violating Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.
Rui Pinto, the genius
The man who has been behind the scenes all this while and ensured that the UEFA got hold of the undercooked books and staggering numbers was Portuguese technological freak Rui Pinto. An unassuming man, Pinto had first revealed the extent to which City’s numbers were forged when he hacked into the club’s email accounts and passed them on to the media. A member of the popular (or unpopular, depending upon your point of view) hacking site Football Leaks, Pinto was reported to have accumulated around 70 million documents and 3.4 terabytes of information from his hacks. He has, of course, been arrested and sent to prison, although his findings were widely appreciated across the world. It is also reported that he is wanted in courts for around 85 separate trials of sabotage and fraud among other offences.
Pinto, however, is seen as a whistle blower and protests have taken place across Europe demanding his release. He himself had admitted earlier that he knew the risk that he was taking and was aware of its consequences. It is worth noting, however, that he still decided to proceed and expose Manchester City’s financial misdoings to the world. Social microblogging site Twitter has seen an increasing number of users demanding justice for him but the authorities have not taken a similar view.
Appreciating Rui Pinto
The Portuguese hacker had, with ridiculous ease, exposed City’s misdeeds and revealed how their owner Sheikh Mansur bin Zayed al-Nahyan was inflating their sponsorship revenue illegally. Pinto had also been in the news earlier when he had recovered Cristiano Ronaldo’s tax evasion documents but it was City’s case which catapulted him to fame. He has been since extradited from Hungary where he was living at the time, but the former university student has brought illuminating aspects of what goes on behind the scenes in top-flight football.
It is not quite clear what Manchester City were looking to achieve by ‘cooking their books’, but Pinto must be lauded for bringing the issue into the public’s jurisdiction. There had always been rumours about City’s alleged mishandling of funds earlier but there was no concrete evidence which could be held in court against them. However, Pinto, who goes by the pseudonym ‘John’ in the Football Leaks website, changed all of that. His heroic efforts will go a long way in bringing monetary regularity in top-flight football as well as ensuring a level-playing field for all.
Manchester City, who are owned completely by the aforementioned Sheikh Mansour, are often dubbed informally as being the richest football club in the world. Their owner has splurged a lot in both on-field and off-field activities and they have undoubtedly helped the side gain a significant advantage in English and European football. It is hoped that after what Pinto has done, they will add more transparency to their future transactions.
The way forward for football
It is a sad fact that football, which is termed as ‘the beautiful game’ has fallen prey to such crimes and transgressions. While the infusion of money has helped football tremendously, it has also taken away a little bit of its romanticism. Manchester City have been dealt a huge blow and their players will have to suffer for no fault of theirs.