On Monday, Mario Ferri, 35, a.k.a. “The Falcon,” disrupted the Portugal-Uruguay World Cup game by sprinting onto the field while wearing a blue Superman T-shirt with the words “Save Ukraine” on the front and “Respect for Iranian Woman” on the back.
He also carried a rainbow-coloured flag adorned with the words PACE, meaning peace in Italian
The Italian is a football player with a history of similar stunts.
In 2010, Ferri invaded the Club World Cup pitch in Abu Dhabi during an Inter-Mazembe game furling an AC Milan scarf.
Four years later during the World Cup in Brazil, he again sported his Superman T-shirt as he ran onto the field during a Belgium-USA game.
“I’m BACK,” wrote the footballer on his Instagram page, where he describes himself as a “modern pirate”.
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Ferri said he wanted to send “important messages”, including for Iran “where I have friends who are suffering, where women are not respected”.
“FIFA banned rainbow captain’s armbands and human rights flags in the stands, they blocked everyone, BUT NOT ME, like a Robin Hood,” he wrote.
“SAVE UKRAINE. I spent a month in the war in Kyiv as a volunteer and saw how much those people are suffering,” he wrote, adding that “breaking the rules for a good cause is never a crime”.
Italy’s foreign ministry confirmed Ferri had been briefly detained following the pitch invasion, before being “released by the authorities without any further consequences”.
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