Pinto points directly at Infantino
The fallout from Manchester City’s landmark financial case has taken another dramatic turn, with the man behind Football Leaks now turning his attention towards the most powerful figure in world football.
In a new statement published on X, Rui Pinto accused current FIFA president Gianni Infantino of playing a central role in UEFA’s handling of Manchester City more than a decade ago.
“Back in 2014, there was a man who was already aware of the irregularities involving Manchester City,” Pinto wrote, before identifying that man as Infantino, who was UEFA’s general secretary at the time.
Pinto went considerably further, alleging that Infantino abused his position, shared confidential information and effectively worked around UEFA’s Investigatory Chamber to prevent Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain from facing a more severe examination that could potentially have ended with exclusion from the Champions League.
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Those remain allegations made by Pinto. However, the broader issue of Infantino’s involvement in the 2014 negotiations is not new.
Secret negotiations were reported years ago
Documents from Football Leaks examined by Reuters in 2018 showed that Infantino was personally involved in negotiations between UEFA and both Manchester City and PSG when the clubs were facing Financial Fair Play sanctions.
According to the Reuters investigation, Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano wrote internally that he and Infantino had agreed that lawyers from City and UEFA should negotiate a settlement. A further email referred to a meeting between Soriano and Infantino in London on May 8, 2014 as a “secret” meeting intended to help reach a final agreement.
UEFA’s investigators had assessed City’s financial position and concluded that the club had exceeded the permitted losses by a substantial amount. The case could have been referred to UEFA’s adjudicatory chamber, where exclusion from European competition was among the possible sanctions.
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Instead, an agreement was eventually reached.
City accepted a €60 million financial sanction, although a substantial part of that amount was conditional and later returned after the club satisfied subsequent requirements. Its Champions League squad was also restricted, but the club remained in the competition.
Reporting based on Football Leaks subsequently alleged that Infantino had helped City and PSG avoid the toughest available punishment.
Infantino has previously rejected wrongdoing
The accusations against Infantino therefore date back years, and he has previously strongly rejected suggestions that his intervention was improper.
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When the Football Leaks material was published in 2018, Infantino said there had been no wrongdoing and maintained that his actions had been transparent. He argued that meeting Manchester City and PSG was part of his responsibility at UEFA because the organisation was attempting to negotiate settlement agreements with clubs accused of breaching its financial regulations.
FIFA also responded at the time by arguing that the reporting was designed to undermine its leadership and insisted that none of the material demonstrated a breach of law, regulations or FIFA statutes.
That distinction remains important. Pinto’s latest statement is a renewed accusation rather than a fresh judicial finding against Infantino.
What has changed dramatically, however, is the position of Manchester City.
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City verdict gives old documents new significance
On September 29, the Premier League confirmed that an independent commission had found Manchester City guilty of all charges concerning serious breaches of its financial rules between 2009/10 and 2017/18, as well as three of four charges relating to the club’s failure to cooperate with the investigation.
The commission found that City had arranged what it described as “sham” contracts with commercial partners, artificially inflated revenue, misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from auditors and football regulators.
Manchester City reject the findings and have confirmed that they will appeal, arguing that the decision contains material errors of law, principle and fact. The disciplinary process is therefore not yet complete.
The significance for Pinto is obvious. The leaked material associated with Football Leaks helped trigger the scrutiny that eventually developed into the Premier League investigation.
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Now he is arguing that football should look further back.
Attention could shift from Manchester to football’s institutions
Pinto’s intervention changes the question surrounding the City affair.
The immediate debate concerns what punishment Manchester City could eventually receive. But Pinto is attempting to widen that debate into one about the institutions that were supposed to regulate the club in the first place.
UEFA already examined City’s finances in 2014. Infantino was involved in negotiations surrounding that process. City remained in the Champions League. Four years later, Football Leaks exposed internal documents concerning those negotiations and City’s financial arrangements.
More than a decade after the original settlement, an independent Premier League commission has now concluded that City committed serious financial breaches during a period that overlaps substantially with UEFA’s earlier scrutiny.
That does not prove Pinto’s allegations against Infantino.
It does, however, ensure that one of the most controversial chapters of the Football Leaks story is suddenly relevant again, and this time the focus is not solely on Manchester City, but on how European football’s governing structures responded when the warning signs first appeared.
