Footie mad gran runs onto pitch and pretends to faint THREE times to help team qualify for World Cup

Oct 16, 2017

A Panama-supporting grandmother has been hailed a hero after invading the pitch to help her country secure World Cup qualification.

The football fanatic raced onto the field, before pretending to faint three times as security attempted to remove her.

Panama managed to maintain their 2-1 lead against Costa Rica until injury time, but the devoted fan decided to take no chances.

The pitch invader, identified as Elida de Mitchell, was chased onto the field by security during Tuesday’s fixture.

After the game had finished and her side had booked their spot in next summer’s contest, she revealed that her dizzy spell was all an act.

She said: “Nothing happened to me, I only knew that police wanted to make me move away and I pretended to faint again.

“When the policeman asked me, what is going on? I answered ‘You are going to the World Cup, sh*t, do not stop me here.”

Panama had endured 10 unsuccessful qualification attempts previously, but they have now secured their spot for the time in history.

The President of Panama has announced a public holiday to mark the day that they qualified.

Ms Mitchell told local media: “I jumped onto the pitch in order to avoid Costa Rica scoring another goal. I was not going to let them do it.

“I did not want to leave the pitch until the match ended.

“I decided to do that alone because the other time we did not go to the World Cup and I cried.

“This time I thought that I was not going to cry. And I did not cry.”

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