Rui Pinto, whose leaks of private documents helped trigger the Premier League's investigation into Manchester City's financial affairs, is no longer a protected witness in Portugal, documents seen by the Guardian have revealed.

The removal of the whistleblower's protection was decided on Wednesday. Pinto has also been advised to "exercise caution with family contacts" and avoid social media.

A fall from protection

The 37-year-old, the man behind the Football Leaks website, had been a protected witness since 2020, after agreeing to grant Portuguese authorities access to millions of files gathered prior to his arrest. The Portuguese police have now deemed the risk to his safety to be low, despite an assault on him in Lisbon in April and the ongoing fallout from the City investigation. Pinto was left with a bruised eyebrow after the incident and the police were informed, although no complaint was filed.

Pinto was handed a suspended four-year sentence in September 2023 after being found guilty on counts of attempted extortion, illegal access to data and breach of correspondence. But he has been hailed as a hero by some supporters for exposing millions of confidential documents linked to some of the biggest clubs, players and organisations in world football.

The City connection

His leaks, passed to Der Spiegel and its partners in the European Investigative Collaborations network, led to both Uefa and the Premier League opening separate investigations into City's finances. While City eventually overturned their Champions League ban via the Court of Arbitration for Sport, they were found guilty of 114 charges spanning nine seasons by the Premier League, having been accused of disguising over £900m in funding through sham commercial contracts and false accounting. The deadline for City to appeal is on Friday.

Pinto has been heavily active on social media since the verdict emerged. He described it as a "historic decision for English football" and took aim at City's executives, who he said had "acted with complete impunity, challenging everyone and everything".

"From the very beginning, they have demonstrated a complete lack of respect for the rules, for the bodies responsible for overseeing and regulating the game, for the integrity of the competition, for the other clubs and, above all, for the fans," Pinto wrote. "Years and years of cheating, lying and manipulation will finally have consequences."

Hours before confirmation that he would no longer be a protected witness, Pinto also accused Fifa president Gianni Infantino of having done "everything in his power" to ensure that City and Paris Saint-Germain would only be fined for contravening Uefa's FFP rules when he was general secretary at European football's governing body.