Fiat workers are to go on strike over the firm’s owners’ decision to pay £88m to buy Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid.

Italy’s Agnelli family owns almost 30 per cent of Fiat through an investment holding, Exor. The Agnellis also own 64 per cent of Juventus, the club Ronaldo will join next season, after nine years playing for the Spanish team.

The Italian side confirmed the news on Wednesday after weeks of speculation over the move.

Fiat Chrysler (FCA) has made thousands of lay-offs in Italy over the past few years, due to a lack of new models and workers in the small USB Lavoro Privato union say the money spent on Ronaldo would have been better used to invest in the company.

The union said: “It is unacceptable that while the [owners] ask workers of FCA ... for huge economic sacrifices for years, the same decide to spend hundreds of millions of euros for the purchase of a player.

“The owners should invest in car models that guarantee the future of thousands of people rather than enriching only one.”

Workers at the Melfi plant will strike from late Sunday to early Tuesday, the union said. According to reports, the independent union represents only a small number of workers at the Melfi site.

FCA and Exor declined to comment.