A Portuguese court decided on Friday to go ahead with the trial of Rui Pinto, the hacker behind the Football Leaks, one of his lawyers said.

"The court has upheld its decision to try Rui Pinto," Francisco Teixeira da Mota told AFP after a hearing in Lisbon.

Although, the lawyer said, "the number of offences against him has been reduced" to 90 from 147.

Pinto, who is Portuguese, was extradited from Hungary last March for allegedly attempting to blackmail Doyen Sports, an investment fund, asking for between 500,000 and one million euros in return for not publishing documents he had obtained illegally from the computer systems of Doyen and of Sporting Lisbon.

His lawyers claim that he had abandoned his blackmail attempt on his own initiative. They say Rui Pinto is a "very important European whistleblower".

The Football Leaks revelations allowed prosecutors in several countries, including Britain and France, to investigate possible wrongdoing in football.