He jumped over the barriers that surrounded the field and ran onto the football pitch, repeating what he had done several times before. True, his latest activities in the Gulf state are perhaps the most daring act of the Italian.
Mario Feri Falco, nicknamed “Il Falco” or “The Falcon”, is a 35-year-old activist and soccer player.
According to reports, Ferri has been a professional soccer player for over nine years and was recently signed by second division team United Sports Club of India. The league was temporarily suspended in March 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic, so Ferri returned to his hometown of Pescara.
Previously, he also represented Italian, Jordanian, Seychelles and San Marino clubs.
In 2009, he ran onto the pitch during a match between Italy and the Netherlands, demanding that striker Antonio Cassano be included in Italy’s 2010 World Cup squad. However, there was no striker in this lineup.
Ferri returned to the pitch at the World Cup in South Africa with a message to head coach Marcello Lippi, whose Italy team had already failed without Cassano: “Lipi, I told you so”.
A few months later, in December 2010, Ferri’s messages began to become more political. He ran onto the pitch in Abu Dhabi during the Club World Cup final between Inter Milan and Mazembe with the message “Free Sakin”, a reference to Iranian Sakin Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning and was released after nine years in prison in 2014 in the year
At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, he interrupted the group stage match between Belgium and the USA with the message: “Save the children of the favelas”.
At the beginning of this year, Ferri went to Poland from Pescara to help Ukrainian refugees.
Just weeks after Russian tanks crossed the Ukrainian border, Ferri rented a car to help refugees cross the Ukrainian-Polish border near Lviv. He said on his Instagram account that he helped 60 people escape.
Ferri has many tattoos, and one of them is of the Ukrainian trident depicted in the coat of arms of Ukraine.
Portugal and Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves publicly supported Ferri’s message and expressed his desire for the Italian to be treated leniently by World Cup officials in Qatar.
Neves told reporters: “We all support him and the messages on his shirt as well. We hope nothing bad happens to the guy because we understand his messages and I think the whole world did too.
Also, we know very well what has happened in relation to this World Cup.”
