Virtus Roma tries to make a wall: "It’s not sport, but a buying and selling"
Suddenly in Rome the landscape seems congested: there could be two teams in Serie A, with historic Virtus–if all goes as planned–in A2, and Luiss Basket, currently in the playoffs, in Serie B. A scenario that may be interesting, but one that makes the issue of facilities a real puzzle, difficult to solve.
Today Virtus and Luiss share the Palazzetto dello Sport, the PalaEur, but looking at the calendar, next year the facility will be available for only six days. Not to mention Roma Women’s Volleyball, which has ambitious plans.
The president of Virtus Roma 1960, Massimiliano Pasqualini, remains firm on his positions: “We are history and we want to honor it on the court,” reads Corriere della Sera. “I do not understand the logic of some choices, we are about to announce the entry of an important foreign partner and a project that wants to bring Virtus back to the Serie A soon, where it belongs. The rest is not sport, but buying and selling far from the tradition and spirit of belonging that we are trying to revive in Rome.”
The facilities node is then intertwined with the broader debate on the NBA Europe project, which envisages the arrival in Italy of two franchises with the NBA brand. Among Virtus Roma fans, too, the issue has inflamed tempers: the message circulating in historic fan circles is stark-“a team in our city is already there and should be supported”-a testament to how the issue of identity remains central to the Roman basketball debate.
It is worth recalling the troubled path that led to the birth of the current Virtus Roma 1960. After the promotion to Serie A won in April 2019, the old club had experienced a difficult season, interrupted by the pandemic, before finally renouncing its championship membership in December 2020. The legacy had been picked up by Pallacanestro Virtus Roma 1960, which also acquired the club’s historical brand in December 2025, thus completing the process of reappropriating an identity that Pasqualini now wants to bring back to the top of Italian basketball.
