Italian TV ambush Marquez at home

"A group of people appeared at the home of [Marc Marquez] and uttered a series of insults, performed certain humiliating and ridiculous actions toward the rider himself and even pushing and assaulting [his] closest relatives"

Peter McLaren

31 Oct 2015

Marc Marquez's management have confirmed that a scuffle took place with some Italian TV journalists waiting at the Spaniard's house.

The Italians were from the TV show Le Iene (The Hyenas), which is described by Wikipedia as "a comedy/satirical show, with sketches and reports into political affairs and consumer issues".

In the latest unsavoury episode following Valentino Rossi's penalty for clashing with Marquez in the Malaysian MotoGP, it appears Le Iene staff were planning to present a mock 'Cup of Shit' award to Marquez.

A translated post on the programme's Facebook page reads:

"This afternoon we went to Spain to try to deliver to MotoGP rider Marc Marquez the 'Cup of Shit', a special award created to celebrate the 'deeds' of the Spanish champion. But things did not go as the two were expecting.

"We arrived near the home of the parents of the rider where we met Marc Marquez, his father, his brother and their friend. When we tried to deliver our cup we were attacked and a scuffle broke the camera and removed the video cards. Probably they wanted a bigger cup."

"Stephen and Alexander [the Le Iene journalists] are now in hospital, healing from their injuries."

Marquez's management have issued the following statement which, translated from Spanish, is as follows:

"Yesterday there were some unfortunate events in Cervera. A group of people appeared at the home of [Marc Marquez] and uttered a series of insults, performed certain humiliating and ridiculous actions toward the rider himself and even pushing and assaulting [his] closest relatives. Given the seriousness of the action, such acts have been reported and the normal course of criminal proceedings continue against such persons.

"Representative of the rider Emilio Alzamora, given the circumstances, requests that "actions like these do not happen again" and calls for "the deserved respect both to Marc and to his family."

Rossi has launched an appeal against the three penalty points he received for causing the clash with Marquez, in an effort to avoid a back of the grid start in next weekend's title showdown with team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.