The issue came to a head when labourers were spotted wearing Man Utd colours on the job.

One 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.”

Ian Fleming, construction director, of BAM Construction said: “BAM took a no football shirt policy at the start of this project given the dynamics of this site and the football clubs it made sense to instigate it.

“We wanted to avoid any partisan alliances being brought into the work place.  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 across the site”.