Manchester City’s two-year ban from the Champions League for breaking Financial Fair Play rules was uncovered by the most unlikely of detectives — Rui Pinto, a Portuguese hacker who worked out of his modest home under a pseudonym.

His revelations sent shockwaves through the world after he gained access to club emails and handed them to the media, according to British tabloid The Sun.

Pinto spent three years sending confidential information in 70 million documents from top club officials to the German magazine Der Spiegel. He was living in Hungary at the time but was eventually tracked down.

The Football Leaks scandal has seen the 31-year-old sent to prison last March, where he remains to this day awaiting a court case for his alleged crimes. He has been accused of hacking sabotage and fraud.

On Thursday, he was denied an appeal and will face trial for 90 different counts after exposing top sides and players from around Europe. It was his action that has forced Uefa into the unprecedented ban for the Etihad side, while fining them nearly £25m.

He said: “I was aware that anything could happen.I knew that Portuguese authorities prosecute whistleblowers, so I had to be ready for that.

“The Portuguese authorities are afraid of what I know and that’s why it is important that I not lose my mind. In the beginning, I wrote notes related to the case in my notebook, but then it was taken from me.

“My lawyer was present when they searched my cell and said it was illegal to take away my notes. It wasn’t the prison guards who did it, but the Portuguese prosecutors,” he said.

Pinto insists his aim is to clean up football. “I don’t consider myself as a hacker, but a citizen who acted for public interest,” he said.