Builders working on Manchester City's new Etihad Campus have been told they can't wear Manchester United shirts to work and that anyone found breaking the rule could be fired.
The Eastlands club are currently in the process of building a new, £120 million training ground that will be known as the Etihad Campus.
The impressive new development should be ready for the start of the 2014/15 season and will include 16 full-size pitches, a FIFA regulation indoor pitch and a training, medical and operational facility and a community college.
Considering that such a big project requires an awful lot of manpower, it was hardly possible that all of the laborers on the site would support the club for whom they're building the spanking new training ground.
United fans, in fact, would probably be keener to show their allegiance while working on a project associated with their arch rivals.
However, some of them have been prevented from doing so by BAM, the construction firm building the complex.
A worker told the Manchester Evening News: "Because the weather has been so nice a lot of the lads have been wearing football shirts.
"Some of those have been United shirts but on Tuesday two lads wearing United shirts were told to cover them up or get off the site.
"They asked why and were told that there was a no-football shirt policy. They said it was in the rules but it's the first we've heard of it.
"We see a silver Land Rover giving people tours of the site and I think that the club may have been embarrassed by it.
"They are annoyed because builders always wear old football shirts. The site is in Manchester and so people are going to wear United shirts."
But BAM deny that workers were discriminated against because the shirts they were wearing were those of City's fiercest rivals.
Ian Fleming, from BAM Construction, explained: "BAM took the decision from the start of this project to ban all football shirts on site to avoid any partisan alliances being brought into the work place.
"We are treating any football shirts, no matter what the team, in the same way. We may have missed some but are striving to enforce the policy site wide.
"Strict building regulations are laid down for elements of the construction process one of which is for a local building control officer to inspect the quality of a structural concrete pour which includes checking the foundations."
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| It seems the rivalry between the two Manchester clubs has spread from football pitch to building site |
The Eastlands club are currently in the process of building a new, £120 million training ground that will be known as the Etihad Campus.
The impressive new development should be ready for the start of the 2014/15 season and will include 16 full-size pitches, a FIFA regulation indoor pitch and a training, medical and operational facility and a community college.
Considering that such a big project requires an awful lot of manpower, it was hardly possible that all of the laborers on the site would support the club for whom they're building the spanking new training ground.
United fans, in fact, would probably be keener to show their allegiance while working on a project associated with their arch rivals.
However, some of them have been prevented from doing so by BAM, the construction firm building the complex.
A worker told the Manchester Evening News: "Because the weather has been so nice a lot of the lads have been wearing football shirts.
"Some of those have been United shirts but on Tuesday two lads wearing United shirts were told to cover them up or get off the site.
"They asked why and were told that there was a no-football shirt policy. They said it was in the rules but it's the first we've heard of it.
"We see a silver Land Rover giving people tours of the site and I think that the club may have been embarrassed by it.
"They are annoyed because builders always wear old football shirts. The site is in Manchester and so people are going to wear United shirts."
But BAM deny that workers were discriminated against because the shirts they were wearing were those of City's fiercest rivals.
Ian Fleming, from BAM Construction, explained: "BAM took the decision from the start of this project to ban all football shirts on site to avoid any partisan alliances being brought into the work place.
"We are treating any football shirts, no matter what the team, in the same way. We may have missed some but are striving to enforce the policy site wide.
"Strict building regulations are laid down for elements of the construction process one of which is for a local building control officer to inspect the quality of a structural concrete pour which includes checking the foundations."
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