Taking the Long View: Man City Verdict Shows Whistleblowers’ Impact Spans Years
By Sandrine Rastello
The independent commission that recently found Manchester City guilty on nearly all charges of breaking Premier League rules sent shock waves through international football, threatening the future of one of the biggest clubs and straining diplomatic relations between the UK and the United Arab Emirates.
For The Signals Network, which has supported the whistleblower behind the Football Leaks that sparked the lengthy probe, it was yet another reminder that the impact of speaking up can often take years.
“Speaking up against wrongdoing can lead to major societal gains but those usually aren’t seen right away as investigations, prosecutions and legislation follow their own pace,” TSN’s Founding Executive Director Delphine Halgand-Mishra said. “The impact on the life of whistleblowers can last years, too. That’s why we must take a long view when supporting them.”
The guilty verdict for Manchester City (which the club appealed) was a seismic conclusion to an eight-year investigation sparked by the Football Leaks, the trove of confidential documents whistleblower Rui Pinto started releasing in 2015. Partnering with Germany’s Der Spiegel and other media from the European Investigation Collaborations network, Rui Pinto has helped expose multiple cases of wrongdoing such as tax evasion, financial corruption and regulatory breaches in European professional football.
On September 25, he hailed the Manchester city verdict “a historic decision for English football and one that comes to crown the work I have carried out through the Football Leaks.”
Starting a chain of events
In a society expecting immediate rewards, few people keep track of the incremental progress that follows revelations. Joshua Farinella, another TSN-supported whistleblower, shared his own timeline in a post detailing his journey last month.
“Sometimes speaking up doesn’t produce an immediate result,” he wrote. “Sometimes it starts a chain of events that takes years to fully see.”
In 2023-2024, Farinella came forward with evidence of food safety, human rights and labor abuses at a shrimp processing factory in India. Since then, members of Congress, the U.S.Food and Drug Administration, the Southern Shrimp Alliance and the U.S. Department of Labor all took action related to the issues he raised.
On August 31, 2026, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the PAIL Act, which strengthens the Department of Justice’s ability to investigate and prosecute international trade crimes.
“I don’t claim that my whistleblowing caused the PAIL Act,” Farinella wrote. “But there is something pretty remarkable about seeing the progression: Whistleblower evidence → Congressional oversight → Federal agency action → Indian shrimp forced-labor determination → broader congressional effort to strengthen trade-crime enforcement.”
Bringing a different perspective
A legislative milestone in California last month was another example of a chain of events involving a whistleblower.
On September 30, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring the separation of the Riverside County Sheriff’s and Coroner’s offices and introducing measures to improve transparency around jail deaths, which spiked to a decades-high in 2022.
The legislation was a win for many families of deceased inmates who had called for it, and followed a string of wrongful deaths lawsuits against Riverside County, the Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Chad Bianco.
Among those who pushed the issue into public view was Victoria Flores, a former Sheriff’s captain who sued the Sheriff’s Department for whistleblower retaliation. The lawsuit says she was fired after repeatedly raising concerns with superiors about wrongful deaths and unconstitutional uses of force against inmates.
By bringing the perspective of someone inside the chain of command, Flores, who is supported by TSN as well, played an invaluable role in the debate and has continued to influence it. In June, one of the deceased inmates’ family included a sworn statement she made in its wrongful death lawsuit.
Whether about football, food or jail safety, Pinto, Farinella and Flores made a decision that changed their life to denounce wrongdoing. Yet Pinto has become at risk of losing witness protection from Portuguese authorities, despite the threats he still faces.
“When whistleblowers come forward, we all benefit as a society” Halgand-Mishra said. “Let’s make sure we remember it well after they speak up.”
