Rieti – A nightmare return from a basketball trip turns tragic: Raffaele Marianella, a 65-year-old Roman driver now living in Florence, died last night in Rieti hospital after a day of agony, struck by a rock during a violent attack on the Pistoia Basket fans' bus.
Three Sebastiani Rieti ultras, linked to the Curva Terminillo football club, have been arrested by the local prosecutor's office on serious suspicion of aggravated voluntary manslaughter. They are now being held in the Rieti prison, while the investigation—coordinated by prosecutor Paolo Auriemma—is expanding to include a group of about ten people, including those with far-right affiliations.
A fourth Sebastiani Basket Rieti ultra is under investigation at large for aiding and abetting the same crimes that led to the arrest of the other three ultras this evening.
A tragedy that rekindles the spotlight on the ultra violence that is too often tolerated in team sports, where "hot" cheering can lead to lethal ambushes. It was early evening on Sunday, October 19th when the bus chartered by Jimmy Travel—a company in Osmannoro where Raffaele had been working for just three months—left the PalaSoFi in Rieti, the scene of a Serie A2 game won by the home team 78-72 against Pistoia.
About 100 meters from the Contigliano exit, at kilometer 5+800 on the Rieti-Terni highway, a hail of rocks and bricks hit the vehicle, in true "overpass ambush" style. The first driver, who was driving, suffered minor injuries to the arm; Raffaele, the "second" driver, who had accepted the shift simply to keep his colleague company and enjoy the ride, sustained a blow to the face that fractured his skull.
Rushed to hospital with a red code, the man—close to retirement, a loving father and grandfather—did not make it: bleeding complications took his life exactly one year after his well-deserved retirement.
Tomorrow's autopsy will clarify whether the "fatal" stone—now being analyzed for DNA—was thrown with murderous intent, but the Prosecutor's Office has no doubts: it was a premeditated execution against sporting "enemies."
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State Police officers, who responded to the scene, intercepted a fleeing car with its faces masked: from there, the circle closed around a group of people in the Terminillo curve, a historic Sebastiani ultra stronghold known for fiery choreography but also for extra-sporting effervescence.
The three arrested—aged between 25 and 35, all with prior convictions for brawling and assault—are charged not only with murder but also with damage to and disruption of a public service. "Serious evidence of guilt," reads the warrant, which points to the motive of "extreme football": the rivalry between Rieti and Pistoia, ignited by a stinging defeat on the pitch, degenerated into a ritual of revenge that ended an innocent life.
Raffaele Marianella wasn't a "player" in that basketball arena: he was a Roman through and through, with a thick accent and a passion for travel stories, who had chosen Florence for a quieter life. "He was just there to chat, to make the shift less lonely," his daughter recounts in a viral post on X, "always in my heart, Dad. It wasn't supposed to be this way."
His death, a "punch in the stomach" for the Pistoia community, sparked a wave of mourning: Pistoia Basket canceled training, the president of the FIP (Italian Basketball Federation) condemned "a barbaric act that stains the sport," and hashtags like #GiustiziaPerRaffaele are popping up on social media.
"Raffaele was the second driver, he was there to keep us company," tweeted an account dedicated to the red and white fans, echoing a shared grief that transcends the stadium.
Since 2015, when four Milanese fans were injured in a clash in Caserta, the number of incidents has increased: bans issued in double figures annually, matches held behind closed doors, and a Ministry of the Interior report denouncing 455 ultra groups active in professional leagues, with basketball accounting for 15% of violent incidents.
And while the prosecutor's office searches for DNA evidence and accomplices, the question echoes: how much longer will sport—a shared passion—have to pay the price of a fan base that kills? Sebastiani Rieti has distanced itself: "Solidarity with the family; those responsible do not represent us." But for Raffaele, his final journey ended too soon. Italian basketball mourns, and calls for a lifetime banishment order and reforms: so that a stone thrown will never again be a lethal weapon.
Comments (1)
Abodi said these aren't fans, they're criminals... narrow-minded, they're both criminals and fans! Sport is a huge catalyst for violence. Enough with the rhetoric about clean sport!