A World Cup protester who went onto the pitch during a game while waving a rainbow flag and donning a blue Superman T-shirt with inscriptions in favor of the women of Iran and Ukraine was prohibited from attending any future games on Tuesday.
A protester waving a rainbow flag is barred from attending World Cup games
According to a statement from the World Cup organizing committee, his embassy was alerted and “the individual involved was freed immediately after being taken off the pitch.”
The statement said, “As a result of his acts, and as is customary procedure, his (entry permission) has been revoked and he has been prohibited from attending future matches at this tournament.
The protester presented oneself as Mario Ferri on social media, an Italian who has previously pulled off similar antics at soccer events. The rainbow flag was carried by Ferri when she went onto the pitch during the second half of Monday’s match between Portugal and Uruguay. Ferri was pursued by security personnel, and after dropping the flag, he was led away. In an Instagram post, Ferri said, “I’ll name it, ‘THE LAST DANCE,’ my last field invasion. I wanted to transmit IMPORTANT messages, which I’ve personally experienced first-hand in recent months.
Ferri said that he has friends who are suffering in Ukraine and that he volunteered there for a month following Russia’s invasion of the country in February.
The captains of seven European nations were forbidden from donning multicolored “One Love” armbands in favor of LGBTQ rights during World Cup games in the days before the tournament’s opening games. In Qatar, being homosexual is forbidden.
Some spectators also objected to being denied access to stadiums with things that had rainbow hues. He protested as a result, according to Ferri.
Ferri stated, “FIFA banned the captains’ rainbow armbands and the banners for civil rights in the stands, they prohibited everyone, BUT NOT ME. Like a Robinhood 2.0, I delivered the message to the PEOPLE.” All racial and ideological differences should be respected in a free world. Ferri claimed that following the event, police detained him and treated him properly for almost an hour.
He said that Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, assisted him in obtaining his release without suffering any punishments other than a restriction on attending future World Cup games.
“However, there is a fix for that, too. Without going into specifics, Ferri stated in an Instagram video that she has “planned some magic for tonight.”
Ferri has already halted multiple games. He said that when he ran onto the pitch during World Cup games in South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014, Infantino recognized him.