Lawyers usually meet in their offices, he told me. The stadium was full of cameras. In the evening, Buschmann took Pinto to the Gerteraum and showed him the problem. Six weeks later, the leaks started again. Rui is literally one in a million, Carreira da Silva, the sociologist, told me. He was also afraid of being attacked by Benficas most notorious supporters, a group called the No Name Boys. Portos archrival. The apparent justification for that move that stripes are reminiscent of a referees outfit in American sports, and thus alienating to that potential fanbase is as awful as it is hilarious. 20) West Brom. Following the images on Benfica TV, Porto executives naturally did not take the matter lightly and released a response. Pintos hard drives, which are heavily encrypted, are what he hopes will eventually secure his freedom. To be able to comment you must be registered and logged in. That lifetime ban was eventually overturned on appeal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but bin Hammam was subsequently issued a second one in 2012 as a result of 'conflicts of interest' that emerged relating to his role as AFC president. When I asked Pinto if he had anything to do with the Benfica scandal, he denied it, in Pintoesque fashion: Ive never seen a statement from the police or the Portuguese authorities linking me to this. He worried that his gargantuan data set, of which Der Spiegel possesses only around fourteen per cent, might be lost or destroyed if it were handed over to the Portuguese police. No, he said. with football, Pinto said. David bloody Mellor. When he appeared, led by two thickset Hungarian police officers, he looked like a student on a Eurail trip gone wrong. The change in date of the World Cup to accommodate the awarding of hosting duties to Qatar has meant a change in the usual summertime tournament. "Rows about fees are a lovely little smokescreen to hammer agents over the head with, but that just hides serious fraud. We betray each other constantly. Last season, according to the accounting firm Deloitte, European soccer had revenues of twenty-eight billion dollars, about the same as Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and the National Football League combined. In truth though, supporting an unsuccessful team is much better than supporting a team thats just plain embarrassing. I've spoken to people in those industries and greasing palms to make sure you get a contract is part of life. The 2015 FIFA corruption scandal marked the end for Blatter. Proponents of T.P.O. The reporters in the Gerteraum sought to observe clear boundaries with Pinto. A person who is guided more by ideals than by practical considerations, Pinto read from the screen. How football's volatile 48 hours unfolded The 12-team Super League, set up by the seven afore-mentioned teams and Spain's Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid and Italy's AC Milan and. They were real documents.. I mean, how many TV remotes does one person need?, Im afraid we wont make it to dinner. Can you name the top Premier League goalscorer for every nationality? Although Pinto denies any involvement, he is widely seen as a figure of general, youthful rebellion in a country where other forms of activism have been absent. We went shopping, Naber said. Imagine supporting a club that bribed its way to a title. The only relationship he's ever had with football is when he wore a Chelsea shirt in bed. The company hired a Portuguese security firm to study its servers. Football after Rui Pinto is better., While Pinto awaits his trial, he is being held at a prison next to police headquarters, in central Lisbon. 20) West Brom. It was only when the man sat near him in a restaurant in Berlin, three hundred miles east, that he was sure he was being followed. Agnelli, who could face trial over allegations of false accounting at Juventus, was famously one of the architects of the failed attempt to set up the breakaway European Super League in 2021. You know, that Communist lot who had a thing for. Pinto was also concerned about the fate of his home-town club. Brandon Vzquez and Alejandro Zendejas called up for USMNT friendlies, Villarreal vs Real Madrid: times, how to watch on TV, stream online, Copa del Rey, Ceuta vs Barcelona: times, how to watch on TV, stream online, Copa del Rey, Crystal Palace vs Manchester United, live online: score, stats & updates | Premier League 2022-23, Atltico will make Memphis move official tomorrow: he will arrive for 2.5 million. He added: "The Football League trumpet about how the agents' fees are dropping. I suggested that perhaps his sources hadnt gone public because they didnt exist and that Football Leaks was the result of Pintos hacking alone. At one point, his mind drifted to the various funds and middlemen implicated in the match. When he attempted to open it, the file installed malware, which forwarded the contents of Doyens London servers to a Russian e-mail address. But the story gained little traction. "It's not a case of a little extra for a drink any more. comments powered by (France has some of the strongest whistle-blowing protections in Europe.) On the one hand, theres a certain prestige associated with Juve. They play in Lisbon (great), they have a massive stadium and theyve had players like Eusebio. Plays. On October 19th, the police raided Benficas Estdio da Luz, in northern Lisbon. A senior Benfica official compared the leaks to being under a terrorist attack. Benfica is currently suing F.C. Pinto digitized the records of the school library. Together, they gave a sense of seeing the business of soccer for the first time. There was a risk of inciting him to hack. Pinto was ecstatic. Pinto sought to post at least two contracts every day. Pinto prefers to talk about what he has uncovered, and to describe the evolution of European soccer from a varied and distinctive game to a corrupt playground for the international lite, in which only the richest, least scrupulous clubs can thrive. Outside of the pitch, I dont see Ronaldo the same way I see him inside the pitch. Against the odds, Portugal reached the final, playing France, in Paris. The first documents released by Football Leaks related to a controversial investment model known as third-party ownership. European soccer, which reaches its annual climax this weekend, with the final of the Champions League, the games most prestigious club competition, is a wonder of the sporting world. Thats a bad start, but the club also has on its payroll former Brazilian sensation Robinho, who has been sentenced to nine years in prison for sexual assault. Posted by u/[deleted] 3 years ago. I once asked Pinto whether he was an idealist, and he surprised me by seeming not to know the word. Since 2013, under a set of regulations known as Financial Fair Play, European clubs have had to balance their expenditures against their income from soccer-related sources in order to take part in UEFA competitions. When I was in Lisbon last month, an impersonator was playing him on Portuguese late-night TV. People are going to think at least twice before they do something which is not a hundred per cent straight, a Portuguese agent told me. Theyll be back, probably, but thats little consolation for fans of either club right now. When they returned to Pintos street, there were police cars and men in uniform. It will be like plastic, he said. On an overcast morning in March, I sat in the Gerteraum with Buschmann, his editor, Michael Wulzinger, and Nicola Naber, a researcher, who have been the principal custodians of Pintos data since the spring of 2016. Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, and Uefa are working together to . Varela, a precise, watchful man in his early fifties, clicked on a link, which took him to a blog entry that had been created at 5:17 A.M. that day. In school, Pinto was a quiet, distracted presence at the back of the class, who seemed to get his information from elsewhere. "Over here, you will never catch a manager talking directly about it. Date:18th January 2023 at 2:56pm . When Pinto was eleven, his mother was given a diagnosis of advanced lymphoma. He now faces charges of cyber crime. The presentater on Benfica's channel said the list was made by the Daily Mail but they said this list was never published. I asked Pinto if he was aware of the irony of being killed by soccer fans. Pinto took Buschmann to a Serbian restaurant to watch the game, and ordered a meat platter. Raheem Sterling. big breakfast near tampines. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Man United were a SHAMBLES when they lost at Crystal Palace in May as the Ralf Rangnick era died a miserable death in front of Erik ten Hag so how HAS he revitalised the club in just 28 matches? I felt like they were stealing my football club, Pinto told me. deals. The public did not take notice of it.. Like other teams outside the gilded lite, Porto was taking ever-greater financial risks in order to compete. Brazilian law means he cant be extradited. Conscious that the police were listening in, Lucas floated the idea of Lobuzov coming to work for Doyen as an I.T. In a country of ten million people, Benfica claims to have six million supporters, an assertion that gives rise to the idea that it is the most powerful institution in the country. Kind regards, FL. That evening, confidential contracts related to the image rights of Cristiano Ronaldo, at that time the star forward for Real Madrid, appeared on the blog. European seasons are set to restart having been put on pause. The message arrived early in the afternoon of September 29, 2015. Football is the most popular sport in the world which means the are huge gains to be made in business through football. Buschmann and John began exchanging messages every few hours. I typed in the name Jordan Pickford, the current goalkeeper for the English national team. Meanwhile German second-tier outfit St Pauli remains a global lightning rod for the left's football network, with fan groups across the globe from Buffalo to Belfast, and friendships with clubs throughout Europe, many of whom we have covered in this series. Marseille went on to win the Champions League but were ultimately stripped of their Ligue 1 title as a result of the scandal and were relegated due to financial irregularities. But they struggled to compete and some huge names have slipped . Before the reporter left, Pinto gave him two hard drives, containing eight hundred gigabytes of data. We like to think of football as pure, something for enjoyment that unites people the world over. Sport Lisboa e Benfica seem like a pretty cool team. It was the first time he had used Intella. The warrant made no mention of the Benfica e-mails and the subsequent embarrassment for Portugals biggest soccer club, which Pinto was convinced were the real reasons for his arrest. A meeting was arranged for October 21st, near Lisbon. Lucas played along. member states are almost always routine affairs. All rights reserved. published their first Football Leaks stories. What else can I say? he added. You certainly wouldnt want that, right? The corridor outside the courtroom filled with news crews and lawyers. Bookmark Quiz Bookmark Quiz -/5-RATE QUIZ. Maybe, yes.. But there were times when they needed him. It was a rape case. The documents included a settlement agreement, signed on January 12, 2010, between a Ms P and Mr D, in which Ms P was paid three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. The Benfica scandal, the biggest in Portuguese soccer in recent decades, has driven the enmity between the clubs to new heights. Pinto unearthed multiple versions of a twenty-seven-page transcript of an apparent interview of Ronaldo, identified as X, conducted by a member of his legal team, Paulo Rendeiro, about the alleged attack. But, yeah, its just nonsense., By the time Pinto met Buschmann, from Der Spiegel, a few weeks later, he was considering abandoning the project. Now I cant go to the south., Spurred by the Benfica leaks, prosecutors looked at other recent sports-related crimes in Portugal. He had wondered whether they were connected to Football Leaks in some way. Four days later, Lobuzov e-mailed to say that his lawyer was waiting for Lucas to make contact. It is the logical commercial end point for a sport in which a handful of teams currently dominate their domestic markets, but in many countries it would break more than a century of sporting tradition. It was the late Chuck Blazer's whistle blowing and informing that helped the FBI-led investigation that brought about the 2015 FIFA corruption arrests, but the New Yorker himself was by no means an innocent bystander when it came to bribery and tax fraud. team converted PDFs and e-mails into searchable text, while the reporters worked on Intella, specialized software used by prosecutors in fraud cases, to make connections within the documents. . Spending rules are broken. English football 'most corrupt in all Europe'. This is article is brought to you by Geostorm, in cinemas this October. Fans learned that Jorge Jesus, the coach of Sporting Lisbon, was earning five million euros a seasonan extraordinary salary for the Portuguese leaguewhile other files confirmed rumors and disclosed hidden investors. (The chairman is married to Mrs Erdogans niece, for Gods sake.). What did Lionel Messis wife Antonela Roccuzzo say about Shakiras song. Unfortunately, the sport we love so much is rotten and it is time to say enough. Below was a collection of previously unseen documents involving Sporting Lisbon, the eighteen-time winner of Portugals national league. We're talking about millions, but it's gone now. The second transaction triggered an alert at the bank. It's an interesting and laughable decision, as the Portuguese club is likely pointing the finger at rivals Porto, who are listed as the third most corrupt club. Here was irrefutable proof that Italian football was corrupt, but for years, Southern Italian clubs had warned of "cold winds blowing in from the North," and in the 60s, respected English football writer Brian Glanville had written of the "golden fix"; an unwritten rule that match officials looked favourably on the Milan clubs in . We were in his apartment in Budapest. signed a five-page sponsorship contract with the Qatar Tourism Authority for more than a billion euros. Between 2012 and 2016, Man City bought stars like Jack Rodwell (12million), Alvaro Negredo (20million), Eliaquim Mangala (42million), Wilfried Bony (25million) and Patrick Roberts (12million). I dont know any more exactly what she said when she was jerking me off. There were twenty-four hundred and twenty-four results. It is the south against the north; the capital against the rest; cosmopolitan glamour against honest toil. Basically said what kind of data I have, how I got the data, and that is all. Pinto told me that he also met with officers from Frances witness-protection program, who gave him a secure phone with which to contact them in case of an emergency. Benfica have found themselves in a mess that will surely see them wind up in court. Formerly the chairman of the Qatar Football Association and later president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Mohammed bin Hammam was issued a life-time ban by FIFA's ethics committee in 2011. In 2017, Football Leaks published confidential emails allegedly stolen from the Portuguese club, the contents of which were highly embarrassing. It is a paradox of the worlds greatest sport that its results have become so boring. Pintos father, Francisco, designed dress shoes at a local factory. On a dazzling morning in April, four of the eight newspapers on sale in town had stories about him on the front page. MORE INFO. The problem was fixed. JUVE SECOND, MILAN SIXTH -. Portugal is a lovely country for a holiday, he told me. Controlla la tua casella di posta, ti abbiamo inviato un'email per poter accedere direttamente al sito con il tuo account. Rui Pinto leaked more than eighty-eight million documents from the sports insiders. The club was fined a hundred and eighty thousand euros, and was banned from European competition for three years. Gordon, a partner in Key Sports Management, admits he cannot provide any direct evidence but said: "Are agents corrupt? This is a war., Marques has a show on Portos TV channel, and in the weeks that followed he began to read the Benfica e-mails aloud on the air. Thats probably got something to do with the 35 league titles, and also with memories of, Theyve bought some of the best and most expensive players in the world, at least one of whom, The Carlos Tevez billboard was obviously great banter, and cynical ploy or not the Hacienda-themed. The club of the dragon have already informed their Portuguese opponents that they plan on taking them to court over the list to ensure the truth emerges. There was something in him, Buschmann told me. The list starts with Olympique Marseille with Juventus directly after them and their biggest rivals, Porto, coming in third. Or one that was bankrolled by Theresa May. Today, youve got a club, Istanbul Basaksehir, whose close ties to Erdogans government give it actual villain credentials. Thats a bad start, but the club also has on its payroll former Brazilian sensation Robinho, who has been sentenced to nine years in prison for sexual assault. He would not tell me how. Back when you were young, the bad thing about Turkish opposition was fans setting off flares. Encouraged by the widespread reporting of sexual misconduct by powerful men and the use of nondisclosure agreements to silence victims, Mayorga hired a new lawyer, Les Stovall, who wrote to Pinto through an anonymous e-mail address, asking if he had any other documents. In late November, Pinto travelled to Paris to meet with the P.N.F. That December, Der Spiegel and the E.I.C. This project aims to show the hidden side of football. I know it was a nave attitude. In early November, Lobuzov announced that he was walking away. During the summer of 2014, Anbal Pinto reached a deal with Caledonian Bank, in which his client agreed to return half the first transaction and keep the rest, a total of 17,313.50. He thought that a disaffected lawyer might be responsible. Rangers Football Club. On Friday, October 11th, Pinto received a second windfall from Caledonian Bankthis time from an account belonging to NetJets, the private-jet-rental companyof 227,332.80. The image - 'The worst clubs in Europe's top 5 leagues according to xG philosophy. The Italian mafia is expanding abroad, and European police forces aren't prepared. T.P.O., which originated in Latin America, allows external parties to buy a stake in promising young players, in the hope of profiting from a huge transfer deal one day. Be cool. For all Johns bravado, it was clear that Football Leaks was having problems. The bank refused to name the victim of the first transaction and the lab at the university did not keep computer-use records for more than seven days. Pinto sees the future currently awaiting European soccer as bland and predictable. With a high-school diploma and no formal I.T. identit. Storied teams such as Liverpool and Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus, rise and fall. They think they are untouchable. One transaction that Pinto pieced togethera loan deal between F.C. Only a few pink Post-it notes remained on the glass wall next to Nabers desk: Write; Confront; Write; Confront.. He excluded personal gossip and salacious material, and focussed on evidence of Benficas attempts to control the Portuguese game. RasenBallsport gives you wings, but corporate ownership gives you a soulless football club like RB Leipzig. Maybe she got some bruises when I grabbed her. Then he'll be in the shadows again. I am not a rich person, so I could not go to a city like London or Paris, he told me. A lovely little smokescreen to hammer agents over the head with, but that just hides serious.! Pinto sought to most corrupt football clubs in europe clear boundaries with Pinto France has some of the worlds sport... 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