Counterfeit football kits worth £18m seized as Fire Service warns of fire risk
UK authorities have seized over 220,000 counterfeit football shirts worth £18 million due to significant fire safety risks. Testing revealed that these fake garments are highly flammable and contain potentially harmful dyes.
Why it matters
This highlights the physical dangers of counterfeit goods and the importance of consumer safety regulations in the global merchandise market.
Image source, BBC Sport Image caption, Some 220,000 fake strips were seized across the UK in the lead-up to the World Cup
Counterfeit football shirts worth over £18m were seized in the UK during the course of the World Cup because of safety concerns.
The tournament produced a spike in the sales of fake shirts and kits, but the Fire Service has warned that these items are far more flammable and dangerous than the genuine articles.
More than 220,000 pieces of football merchandise were recovered by the Police Intellectual Crime Unit as part of Operation Bloxwich, a UK police enforcement effort targeting counterfeit goods.
One raid involved 1,618 fake strips being taken from a warehouse in Birmingham, including replicas of star players such as France's Kylian Mbappe and Norway's Erling Haaland.
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