When you have two major clubs based in the one city, evidence of rivalry is likely to spring up all over the place and in Manchester, it seems, it has spread from the football pitch to the building site.
Manchester City are currently in the process of building a new, £120 million training ground that will be known as the Etihad Campus and considering that such a big project requires an awful lot of manpower, it was hardly possible that all of the labourers 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, but according to the Manchester Evening News, some of them have been prevented from doing so by BAM, the construction company in charge.
“Because the weather has been so nice a lot of the lads have been wearing football shirts,” a worker who did not wish to be named told the Manchester Evening News.
“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.”
In addition to the policy on football shirts, BAM have also reportedly had to keep a close eye on areas of the site where concrete is poured in order to stop United-supporting workers from decorating the site with ‘MUFC’ graffiti and burying United paraphernalia in the foundations.
The same worker added: “It’s annoying a lot of the lads working there and you are now starting to see bit of ‘MUFC’ graffiti about the place.
“They are annoyed because builders always wear old football shirts. The site is in Manchester and so people are going to wear United shirts.”
The article in the Manchester Evening News also contains a response from Ian Fleming of BAM Construction, who claimed that it is not just United supporters who have been prevented from wearing football shirts on site.
“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,” Fleming said.
“This policy is reinforced in all sub-contractors terms of reference. 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.”
As long as they cover up the cracks in their arses, surely it shouldn’t matter what they wear, right?
