Ronaldo move sparks strike: Funny money

It would not be wrong to say that a great many Italians tend to go along with Bill Shankly’s typically understated description of what might or might not still be the Beautiful Game: “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don’t like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.”

That passion, though, seems to have been tested to the limit at a Fiat Chrysler factory in southern Italy, where workers yesterday began a two-day strike. It isn’t a quotidian demarcation or overtime pay rate dispute. The gripe is about the purchase of Cristiano Ronaldo by Juventus. The club is owned by the Agnelli dynasty, which also happens to be the principal owner of Fiat Chrysler.

Fiat’s workers do not think that Ronaldo is anything other than an exceptionally talented player and, of course, an unusually gifted underwear and Nike show model. Their complaint is the purchase price — €112m — at a time when a Fiat investment freeze leaves employees to survive as best they can on state-funded lay-off schemes.

Football brings home the bacon for the Agnellis and for CR7, who will pocket €30m a season in Turin. The walk-out will change nothing at Fiat and Juventus, but the workers can be forgiven for reminding their employer that while very silly money is being poured into the beautiful game, there’s a lot less ciabatta on their tables at home.