Top pitch invasions in football history

A pitch invasion, also known as field invasion, or field intrusion occurs when an individual or a crowd of people watching a sporting event run onto the playing area to celebrate or protest an incident.

Some people believe that action must be taken to prevent football fans from invading pitches to confront players before a tragedy occurs.

Pitch invasions can result in charges being brought, potentially resulting in fines or jail time, and sanctions against the clubs involved, particularly if the actions cause a disruption in play.

Jimmy Jump, the world's most famous pitch invader, first made a name for himself at Euro 2004 when he threw a Barcelona flag at Luis Figo to protest the midfielder’s move to

four years before. He then got political at the following Euros when he interrupted the Germany-Turkey match wearing a T-shirt inscribed with “Tibet is not China.”

Top pitch invasions in football history:

From goalpost handcuffing and gun-toting invaders to parachutists and weasel-like animals, here’s a look back at the oddest

pitch invasions in football history

. We could dedicate our list to the antics of football’s most famous pitch invaders.

An LGBT pitch invader

As the first pitch invasion in football history, it is worth mentioning that a pitch invader waved a rainbow flag during Hungary’s national anthem at the Euro 2020 match between

and

, after UEFA’s controversial decision to dismiss a request to light up the Munich stadium in rainbow colors.

The European sporting body had declined the German FA’s request to light up the Allianz Arena in support of LGBT rights ahead of Wednesday’s match, claiming it would be considered a “political” gesture amid fierce resistance to a law imposed by Hungary’s far-right government which bans the so-called promotion of homosexuality.

Crowds waved rainbow flags as Hungary’s national anthem played, while one protester carrying the banner made his way onto the pitch, where he was quickly tackled by stewards.

The anti-Ryanair protester

One of the interesting

pitch invasions in football history

occurred in 2012, during which a man protesting about Ryanair's recruitment policy stopped a Premier League match between

and

, handcuffing himself to a goalpost.

Wearing a T-shirt which read, Ryanair - Europe's greatest training robbers. Lowest wages guaranteed, John Foley forced the referee to halt play at Goodison Park for about five minutes on 31 January, 2012.

The man who was carrying a laminated mask of Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary’s face remains Goodison Park’s most bizarre pitch invasion ever.

John Foley disrupted Everton’s goalless draw against Manchester City for five minutes in a protest against his daughter’s apparent unfair dismissal from the budget airline. Foley, who had previously pulled a similar stunt at the Cheltenham Gold Cup Festival, was later banned from all sporting events for three years. 

Foley attached himself to the Man City goalpost, a team supported by Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, and had to be removed by police five minutes before half-time.

Foley wore a T-shirt with his anti-Ryanair logo to highlight his motivations to the television audience. He had been excluded from English horse racing events after running onto the track at Chelten-ham’s Ryanair Chase.

Foley was released on police bail after spending a night in prison cells following his pitch invasion. After his release he apologized to the football clubs and to the fans.

There have been other protests by Foley at the Ashes cricket game, AIB headquarters, the offices of the Irish Aviation Authority, and at an RTÉ mast arising out of a grievance with the Joe Duffy show.

Both teams' managers used the pause to speak to their players as several police officers worked to remove the man from visiting goalkeeper Joe Hart's left-hand post.

The jilted boyfriend

Another noticeable pitch invasion in football history happened in 2016. A football fan was fined for running into the penalty area during a televised match in a bid to win his girlfriend back by scoring a goal during the match.

During the 1-1 draw with Bolton Wanderers, it was nearly overshadowed when a supporter climbed over the advertising hoardings and onto the field of play.

The FA Cup may be renowned for its romance, but it can’t work miracles. In 2016, jilted boyfriend John Dynes gatecrashed the third-round tie between non-league Eastleigh and

in a desperate bid to win back the love of his life.

Sporting a grey top emblazoned with “dreams come true,” the 51-year-old intended to somehow impress his ex by running onto the pitch and scoring in the Bolton area.

Unfortunately this cast-iron foolproof plan backfired when Dynes slipped on his backside in the six-yard area and was immediately arrested.

The cheeky chap ran on the pitch and went on a counter-attacking run with the hosts who so nearly scored.

Charles Nightingale, prosecuting, told the court, "He thought it would be the last chance to get his girlfriend back by getting on Match of the Day.

"His intention was that he would run onto the pitch and attempt to score in the opposing goalmouth that he was running towards.

"It was clearly a ridiculous course of action that caused a very significant disturbance to all of those who had paid to watch the match, although he had not taken any alcohol prior to making the decision to run on to the pitch."

The ball was cleared off the line by Bolton, which raises the question if it went in, would it have counted as a goal?

The parachutist

Not all

pitch invasions in football history

are pre-planned. In 2013, a Conference Premier game between Salisbury City and Chester was delayed by a parachutist forced to make a very public emergency landing.

The uninvited guest, apparently an experienced skydiver partaking in a charity event, didn’t appear too embarrassed by his unusual entrance to the Raymond McEnhill Stadium. In fact, he spent several minutes high-fiving some of the 900-strong crowd before being escorted from the ground.

On June 6, 2021, another parachutist made an emergency landing in the middle of a football pitch during a match in Poland which was another bizarre incident.

The players scurried out of the way as the airborne invader nearly crashes into one of the players. The terrifying incident took a hilarious turn when the referee gave a yellow card to the parachutist.

The weasel

Among interesting pitch invasions in football history are cows, ducks, and even the odd kangaroo that have been recognized as unlikely pitch invaders over the years. But perhaps the most unusual animal gatecrasher is the pine marten who suddenly appeared during a Swiss League encounter between FC Thun and FC Zurich in 2013.

The weasel-like creature caused chaos when he wandered onto the pitch, evaded capture for five minutes and bit defender 

, who briefly managed to pick him up.

In the end, it was left to Zurich keeper

, wisely armed with a pair of gloves, to bring the nippy creature’s antics to an end.

The gun-toting club owner

Football club owners are often accused of not caring enough about action on the field. But the problem with Ivan Savvidis is that he cared just a little too much.

In 2018, the PAOK president sent the opposing AEK Athens players fleeing for the tunnel in 2018 when he stormed onto the pitch to protest a late disallowed goal with a handgun holstered on his waist. This was recognized as the

worst pitch invader ever

.

The pitch invasion occurred in a Greek Superleague match between rivals PAOK and AEK Athens, after the referee disallowed a last-minute goal by

defender

.

Savvidis didn’t just automatically forfeit the match with his gun-toting behavior – his side was also docked another three points, the national team was threatened with a ban by FIFA and the Greek Super League was suspended for two weeks.

Later, Savvidis who stormed the pitch during his side's Greek Superleague match against AEK Athens, issued an apology for his part in the chaotic scenes that have brought football in the country to a standstill. Heb said, “I am deeply sorry for what happened. I had absolutely no right to enter the pitch the way I did.”

Mistaken identity

In 2019, the injured Manchester City defender

appeared to be mistaken for a pitch invader after the club’s 2-1 win over Liverpool. This was definitely one of the

funniest pitch invasions ever in football history

.

Mendy was just seconds away from being rugby tackled to the ground by a pair of overzealous and not-particularly-observant stewards following his side’s 2-1 victory over

earlier this year.

There were celebrations at the Etihad Stadium after Pep Guardiola’s side clinched a crucial three points that could prove to be a turning point in the title race this season.

The injured defender simply ran onto the pitch after the final whistle blew to celebrate with the rest of his team-mates. But sporting a garish orange bomber jacket, ripped white jeans and a black woolly hat, Mendy was briefly mistaken for an unusually dressed pitch invader.

After recognizing their mistake in the nick of time, the two stewards tried to style it out by pretending they were just going for a post-match jog.

The man on crutches

The security at Australia’s Central Coast Stadium is obviously a little more lax than the Etihad Stadium’s.

Whereas Manchester City’s stewards were ready to apprehend a speedy professional footballer at a moment’s notice, staff at Central Coast Mariners’ ground appeared to be completely oblivious when a man with an apparent broken leg sauntered onto the pitch.

Donning a moon boot and pair of crutches, as well as an Aussie cricket shirt, the man in question headed straight for the goalmouth area that opposing

fans were sitting behind. This was definitely one of the

weirdest pitch invasions ever in football history

.

There he goaded them for nearly a minute before finally being escorted away by sluggish officials. Reactions on social media were generally critical of the A-League security, wondering how the injured man could get onto the field.

Despite the holdup, which lasted about a minute, the game continued with Sydney FC beating

2-1.

The paid streaker

Streakers are among the

best pitch invasions in football history

. They are 10-a-penny when it comes to the football pitch invasion. It all happened in a match between

and AFC in the Dutch Third Division. The performance was prepared by the home fans to distract their rivals, but the visitors managed to win by a resounding 2-6.

But there was something different about the one that gatecrashed Rijnsburgse Boys’ encounter with AFC in 2018 – she was a professional adult entertainer paid for by the home fans to bare all and distract their opponents during the Dutch third-tier game.

Wearing nothing but shoes, knee-length socks, and an abundance of tattoos, the blonde named Foxy reportedly entered the field through a fence gap waving a Rijnsburgse flag. Unsurprisingly, this bizarre tactic didn’t exactly have the desired effect – AFC still ran out 6-2 winners.

It seemed that some players who were assumed to be distracted, were encouraged by the amusing incident to win the game!

The tennis ball deluge

Throwing tennis balls onto the pitch has become a surprisingly common form of protest over the last decade. In 2016,

fans did so to show their dismay at rising ticket prices.

Two years before that, Blackpool supporters had revolted against the disastrous running of their beloved club by lobbing a mix of balls and tangerines from the stands.

But perhaps the most impressive, and relevant, tennis ball deluge appeared courtesy of the Swiss League in 2010. Fans of

were so enraged at a national TV network moving their kick-off time to accommodate a Roger Federer match that they threw enough balls on the pitch to suspend play for 40 whole minutes.

Promoting cryptocurrency

A pitch invader promoted cryptocurrency during the Euro 2020 game between

and

on Monday, 2021.

The woman, who jumped over the fence and almost ran to the halfway line at the Gazprom Arena in Russia, was scantily dressed with a top that read ‘WTF COIN’ along with the link to its website.

WTF Coin is understood to be a cryptocurrency that rivals Bitcoin. The female pitch invader’s antics briefly halted the fixture as stadium security managed to apprehend the pitch invader and escorted the woman off the field while covering her front with a jacket.

The incident didn’t affect the game as the

-led Belgium won 2-0 to secure their third straight victory to finish as Group B toppers.

There was also a pitch invader in the other group game between Russia and Denmark where a man wearing a Russia shirt made it to the field before quickly being taken down by security.

These two occurrences were the latest in a series of pitch invasion incidents creating headlines in football after spectators took it upon themselves to run onto the pitch in indecent outfits.

Kinsey Wolanski got more than two million Instagram followers following her pitch invasion during the UEFA Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham in 2019.

Jimmy Jump

Jimmy Jump has been a very well-known name since Euro 2004, when Jaume Marqueti threw a Barcelona flag at Luis Figo to protest the midfielder’s move to Real Madrid. He then got political at the following Euros when he interrupted the Germany-Turkey match wearing a T-shirt inscribed with “Tibet is not China”.

Jaume Marqueti Cot also disrupted games in the Hungarian and Spanish domestic leagues, the Champions League, and the World Cup, most notably attempting (and failing) to place a traditional Catalonian hat on the Jules Rimet trophy before the 2010 final.

The opening exchanges of the UEFA Super Cup clash between Chelsea and Liverpool in Istanbul were interrupted by a pitch invader.

The two Premier League titans, winners of the Europa League and Champions League last season faced off in Istanbul in the annual curtain raiser for the new season of UEFA's continental competition.

However, 15 minutes into the match the action was interrupted by a pitch invader and eight stewards were required to chase down the man, who sprinted onto the field near to the end of the ground housing

fans.

Footage showed him sprinting around to avoid stewards before performing the knee slide and being quickly jumped on by a number of staff and carried away from the field.

The Premier League match between

and Liverpool was postponed after fans dramatically broke into the ground and invaded the pitch in a protest against the Glazer family, the club owners.

Police later condemned attacks on officers, one of whom was attacked with a bottle and sustained a significant slash wound to his face requiring hospital treatment.

The protest came after Manchester United were among 12 clubs that signed up for the breakaway European Super League (ESL), which collapsed within 48 hours due to huge pressure.

Boris Johnson told reporters during a campaign visit to Hartlepool, "I don't think it's a good idea to have disruptive behavior, demonstrations of that kind. But on the other hand, I do understand people's strength of feeling.

"And I think that it's a good thing that we have been able to do things that make it pretty clear that the European Super League is not going to be appreciated by the people of this country, or by this Government."

Following his remarks, police revealed a 28-year-old man has been arrested over the protests as they said six officers had been injured, including one who sustained a fractured eye socket and another a facial wound when bottles, cans and barriers were thrown.

In 2019, the UEFA Champions League final match between Liverpool and

was halted for a few seconds when a female fan invaded the pitch, wearing a black swimsuit, in the first half of the game.

The female pitch invader later identified as a Russian swimsuit model Kinsey Wolanski, who is an Instagram model (

).

A BUSTY blonde pitch invader halted the Champions League final, drawing wide-eyed stares from Tottenham and Liverpool players. Security soon ushered the 22-year-old off the field, and the fun stopped, and the mtch was resumed.

Tottenham were fined £4,400 by UEFA this year when a pitch invader ran on to the field during their Champions League quarter-final first leg against Manchester City.

It is not known how she found her way through security, although she clearly has a swift sidestep.

A man invaded the pitch and attacked Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish during their match with Birmingham City.

Jack Grealish was punched during Aston Villa's game against Birmingham, while Chris Smalling was pushed during Manchester United's defeat to Arsenal.

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