Four people have already been arrested following the violent clash between Napoli and Roma fans on the side of a motorway on Sunday afternoon (8/1).
Wild clashes – with hand-to-hand fighting – broke out between organized fans of Napoli and Roma in Italy on Sunday (08/01). Partenopei supporters were going to see their team’s away game with Sampdoria, in Genoa. And her organized followers Roma were traveling for the derby with Milan.
The incident occurred at Aretso, when the “Giallorossi” vans passed the place where the police were holding the Napoli fans, until they left for Genoa. The ultras of the Partenopei threw objects at the fans of the Romans, the van carrying them stopped, and they started to respond, with the consequence that the incidents became general and chaos was caused on the highway. The conflict was great with about 180 people to be recorded by security cameras at the Badia al Pino service station, where the ‘fight’ took place.
Part of the highway – which is essentially the main link between north and south – was blocked, resulting in kilometers of queues.
The “center” of the conflict was the same motorway service station where Lazio fan Babiele Sandri was killed by police as Lazio Ultras clashed with Juventus fans in 2007.
The two groups of ultras had allegedly planned fighting over messaging apps and police involvement may have helped avoid more serious consequences. The police seem to have known that the two groups of fans would cross each other on the autostrada, so they stationed several “agents” at various service stops on the Autostrada del Sole.
The authorities have already identified and arrests four of those involved for their participation in the clashes, including the well-known Roma fan Martino di Tosto, who suffered a wound in the thigh and was taken to the emergency room of Arezzo hospital, where he was arrested. Investigators are now reviewing security footage to identify others involved in the clash.
Rumors of a pre-planned fight were confirmed by an Italian fan in the newspaper “Il Mattino” who claimed that hundreds of fans had “arranged a rendezvous” at that refueling point with the need to avenge the killing of Ciro Esposito (the Napoli fan who was murdered outside from the “Olympic Games” in 2014) has not yet subsided. “At the root of everything is the death of Ciro, who was killed by a Roman ultras.”
With Napoli fans heading to Genoa and Roma fans to Milan the clash was set and the Autostrada del Sole filling station became a battleground.
Some audio messages that have started to appear on social media regarding the incident give a picture of what happened. For example: “Gerry is completely broken, they took him to the emergency room. Someone else broke his legs and arms.”.
Martino Di Tosto, who is the Roma ultra who was arrested
THE Martino Di Tosto is one of her three ultras Roma who have been arrested (so far) following Sunday afternoon’s clashes on the A1 motorway, near the Badia al Pino motorway service station. Already involved in other incidents in the past, in the profession of a chef, he will be tried on Tuesday, January 10, on the charge of aggravated assault.
The 43-year-old is a prominent name in the world of giallorossi tifosi and historical person of Curva Sud. According to the investigators, he was also in the front line during the violent clashes with his Neapolitan “counterparts”, so much so that he was injured in the leg, probably with a knife. In fact, he was blocked by the police at the emergency room of the San Donato hospital in Arezzo, where he had gone to treat his wound.
His name Di Tosto also appears in other incidents of football and fan related violence. It belongs to the team offensive, group considered close to far-right ideologies. In 2013, he took part in the attack by Giallorossi fans on a Verona fan bus, after the two teams’ match at the Olimpico. His name also appears in a crime story: he was, in fact, the driver of businessman Antonio Maria Rinaldi, who on January 24, 2013 was murdered in via delle Fontanile Arenato, in the Aurelio area.
He was charged with assault and battery.
During the investigations, the police arrested in the evening two other Giallorossi supporters who played an active role in the clash: a 25-year-old and a 39-year-old, who live in the capital and are already known to the police.
In the meantime, the Police continues the effort to locate the hundreds of fans of the two teams involved.
Among the other arrested are Antonio Mariliano, a 35-year-old Napoli fan who received a “postponed offence” notice. Today (10/1) he will undergo the validation hearing before the judges in Arezzo.
The “revenge mission” for Ciro Esposito
At the same time the Corriere della Sera refers to the strategy of the ultras in the war of revenge for Ciro Esposito He talks about the organized movements throughout Italy, the black clothes, the hoods, the map with the underground passages one can hide in to intercept the “enemies” by surprise.
And the pain over the death of the young Napoli fan, the anger over the month-long agony, has turned into an obsession. In every part of Italy and Europe, by any means, using every person, even the “enemies”, the Napoli ultras “had” to take “revenge”. A… deal publicized with a banner at Maradona’s stadium during a match against Roma nine years ago. “Every word is in vain, if the opportunity arises we will show no mercy.”
Two weeks after that banner, the first revenge it was organized and sought by the eternal enemies of the Neapolitans, who are however connected by an invisible thread, that of “conflicts” with respect to supranational codes (not weapons). And so on November 22, two hundred Atalantini (Atalanta fans) attempted to attack the buses of Roma fans. Nine ultras from Bergamo were arrested. Nothing new. But, on the contrary, whoever had to know knew, whoever had to interpret this violent action interpreted it.
In Naples, a few days later, murals appeared with another coded message: “Out of Bergamo from prisons” and a fundraiser was set up to support the legal costs of the imprisoned Atalantini. “If you hit a Roma fan, no one is left alone.” And so it has been for years.
Any group of ultras that replaced the Neapolitans in the conflicts became a “friend”. In Italy, as in the rest of Europe. THE Paris Saint Germain expelled those who supported the Romans. And whenever they get the chance, they attack the Giallorossi in the name of this deal. The same in Germany with Monaco 1860 and Borussia Dortmund. In Serbia with Red Star Belgrade, in Bulgaria with the Plovdiv.
The fan card
For years, Neapolitan ultras have been banned from Italian stadiums. They are leaving by decision of Viminale for “reasons of public order”. The risk of dangerous crossings was very great, also because when Neapolitans move they do so en masse, by the thousands. And almost always with (anonymous) rental cars that are hard to intercept. The turning point came on 1 August 2016 when Curva A, which belonged to Gennaro De Tommasodecided to sign up en masse for the fan card, the pass to participate in away games in Italy’s stadiums.
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