Manchester City case, hacker Rui Pinto quotes Guardiola: "Fasten your seatbelts"

Rui Pinto also sits at the heart of the affair. The Portuguese hacker founded Football Leaks in 2015 to publish confidential documents on international football. His information, also analysed by journalists at Der Spiegel, helped expose alleged financial irregularities by City, along with other controversial cases in football.

Hungary arrested Pinto in 2019, and he received a four-year suspended sentence for attempted extortion and cybercrime. He later worked with several European investigations and was placed under protection. On the verdict relating to City he said, as reported by Corriere.it: "A historic decision for English football, and one that crowns the work I carried out through Football Leaks. Today, we all know that, through structural manipulations and financial manoeuvres, Manchester City have not simply circumvented the rules, they have turned them into a mere formality, defying any attempt to preserve the integrity of the competition. That meticulously orchestrated fraud will finally be subject to punishment, and the impact will not only be turbulent, but devastating... I cannot help but recall Pep Guardiola's words in his first press conference as City manager: “Fasten your seatbelts”".