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.