The one positive to come from Football Leaks and the Man City verdict

Analysis

FT Desk

The football world is still reeling from the news that Manchester City have been charged with 114 cases of financial breaches by the Premier League.

Though the investigation was eventually conducted by the Premier League, it was Football Leaks that initially brought Man City's conduct into the public's consciousness.

Football Leaks was a major leak of confidential documents from professional football that began around 2015. Rui Pinto, a Portuguese man, obtained and published huge amounts of private information, including contracts, emails, financial records and agreements involving clubs, players and agents.

The documents revealed details about player transfers, wages, taxes, agents' fees, image rights and offshore companies. Journalists across Europe investigated the material and published stories involving famous footballers such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho, as well as major clubs including Man City and Paris Saint-Germain.

Interview of Der Spiegel journo Christoph Winterbach on Football Leaks.

He found so many manipulations in the business that dissuaded him from being a football fan

Asked any positivity he found from the leaks, he singled out Martin Odegaard’s father, a shining light in the dark pic.twitter.com/mrWtRgFw57

— Jalan Arsenal (@JalanArsenal) September 29, 2026

Football Leaks also raised questions about whether some clubs and individuals were following UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules. The leaks gave the public a rare insight into the financial side of football and how money was being managed behind the scenes.

Pinto was arrested in 2019 and later faced criminal charges for obtaining confidential information. He argued that he had exposed important information in the public interest, while prosecutors argued that he had illegally accessed private data.

The darker side of the game was suddenly there for everyone to see and people would be forgiven for falling out of love with the sport and that's what happened to Der Spiegel journalist Christoph Winterbach, who published the data as stories for the German publication.

It wasn't completely doom and gloom, however, as he revealed details of one shining light that came from the leaked emails and it surrounds Martin Odegaard's father.

"We did publish a couple of positive stories," he told The Sports Agents podcast.

"I remember the father of Martin Odegaard saying that he doesn’t want the image rights of his son to be transferred to the British Virgin Islands because he thinks football players make enough money already and they dont need to hide this income and everyone should pay their taxes.

"It was quite well received by people, it was a breath of fresh air. It is an exception, and it was the one person in the whole scheming pointing up and saying ‘I dont want to contribute to that’."

In a separate interview with the BBC, Winterbach outlined the initial period when all the documents were leaked.

"In the beginning it was very much a fascinating feeling of like a child in a candy store," he said.

"If you're a football fan, if you're a sports journalist, it was amazing to see the actual documents, to see those emails where things are negotiated and to get a real look behind the curtain, how things work.

"It's very important when you have this type of documents, this type of data, that you make a lot of cross checks, that you use some software which we did that can put it all into context and you can see if there's any reliability issues.

"We always need to make sure that it's authentic material and whenever we publish something about it, it needs to be in the public interest to start writing."

The sanctions for Man City have not been confirmed but speculation is mounting they could be given a financial fine, transfer ban and even a large points deduction which could lead to relegation.