The Italian Embassy in Qatar confirmed this to NRK.

– The nationals concerned were released immediately after the incident, free of charge. Other information will not be shared due to privacy concerns, wrote the Italian consul in Qatar, Enrico Massa, in an email to NRK.

The track striker is said to be an Italian named Mario Ferri, also called “Il Falco”.

– So many emotions now. No legal consequences, I’m free, he wrote in an Instagram story on Tuesday afternoon.

Furthermore, in a separate post, he thanked the support he received following the runway storming, and summed it up thusly:

– Breaking the rules for a good cause is never a crime.

Short time out in the second half between Portugal and Uruguay spectators stormed the field with rainbow flagsand T-shirts bearing the words “save Ukraine” and “respect Iranian women”.

Ferri was quickly taken care of by security guards – but in getting released, he admits he had a little extra help.

He said he had the help of the FIFA president

According to a Spanish radio channel RAC1 Ferri is said to have been released Tuesday night at three. In a recent interview with the same channel, he also made a shocking claim.

– FIFA President Gianni Infantino came personally to help me, he told the channel.

He explained that he had “lots of trouble with the police”, but the FIFA president allegedly showed up and “sorted the situation out”.

NRK has been in contact with FIFA, which did not respond directly to questions about Infantino’s alleged involvement in the case, but they confirmed Ferri was released shortly after he was escorted off the pitch and he is banned from the rest of the World Cup. .

Ferri claimed that he tried to storm the pitch during France-Denmark and Spain-Germany, but he was prevented by security at the stadium. On the other hand, he managed to get past the security guards during Portugal-Uruguay.

– They were able to prevent the captain and players from doing it, but they could not prevent this message from Robin Hood, said Ferri of the rainbow sign.

By that he may be referring to, among other things, the “OneLove” captain’s armband, which several countries were originally set to sport before FIFA stepped in. Association threatens with sports penalties if rainbow armbands are used:

Had to stop the game

Ferri is a name that many people will be familiar with, having tagged it several times in the past. Among other things, at the 2014 World Cup, when he invaded the pitch during a match between Belgium and the US.

As a result of the pitch raid on Monday, the WC match was temporarily suspended before Ferri was escorted by security officers.

– We are all with them and the message on T-shirts – for Iran too. We hope nothing happens to him, because we understand his message and I think the whole world understands it too, said Portugal’s Ruben Neves to the Independent after yesterday’s match.