Fake World Cup soccer kits flooding Britain as border guards lack sources
Fake World Cup football kits have flooded Britain because border guards do not have the resources to intercept them, experts claim.
Border Force officers have confiscated 118,000 bogus shirts destined for the UK black market since 2020. Seizures of the counterfeit clobber – which the Home Office says contains harmful chemicals and funds organised crime – usually peak during international tournaments.
More than 35,000 were confiscated at both the 2022 World Cup and Euro 24. Even in 2023 – a non-football tournament year – almost 20,000 fake tops were prevented from entering the UK by Border Force.
But numbers have since plummeted. Last year Border Force seized just 4,300 fake shirts.
More than 58,000 fake football strips, worth an estimated £5.5 million, have been confiscated in Edinburgh(Image: City of Edinburgh Council)
And the body had confiscated only 2,300 up to the start of the World Cup last month. The figures were revealed by the Home Office in response to a Freedom of Information request by the Daily Star.
Since we made the info request Border Force launched a special operation codenamed BLOXWICH to target fake kits in the run-up to the World Cup. Though 4,400 shirts were seized, that is still just a fraction of the amount normally confiscated in a World Cup year and the UK is awash with counterfeit kits.
We told yesterday how Trading Standards investigators made a record seizure of 58,000 fake World Cup football shirts worth £5.5m at a distribution warehouse in Edinburgh. Undercover officers placed an order to an online ad and followed a trail to the centre packed with bogus gear weighing nine tonnes.
Fake World Cup football kits have flooded Britain(Image: City of Edinburgh Council)
All the Chinese-made kits – largely England and Scotland – were sneaked into the UK past border patrol officers. Chloe Long, director general of the Anti-Counterfeiting Group which tackles product piracy, said stretched resources and changing tactics were to blame.
She said: “A fall in detentions should not be mistaken for a reduction in counterfeit football kits entering the UK market. It is more likely to reflect two significant trends – increasing pressure on Border Force resources and the changing tactics of counterfeiters.
“Border Force officers are stretched across a wide range of priorities. If intellectual property crime is not given the funding, specialist training and strategic focus it requires, fewer illicit goods are likely to be intercepted.
Border guards do not have the resources to intercept them, experts claim(Image: City of Edinburgh Council)
“At the same time criminals are increasingly exploiting e-commerce and social media to sell directly to consumers, with products arriving in thousands of small parcels that are far harder to detect than traditional bulk imports. Counterfeiters are adapting rapidly and our enforcement response must keep up.
“Intellectual property crime needs greater strategic priority at the border, backed by the resources, specialist expertise and investment needed to tackle this increasingly sophisticated and harmful trade. Our members are clear that counterfeit football kits remain a significant and persistent problem, particularly around major tournaments and transfer windows when demand surges.
“What looks like a bargain is often a false economy. Counterfeit kits are typically poor quality, don’t last, and every purchase helps fund organised criminal activity instead of supporting the clubs, grassroots football and charitable initiatives that official sales help sustain.”
Though Border Force’s funding escaped budget cuts, resources have been focused on clamping down on illegal immigration and small boat crossings. A Home Office spokesman said: “Selling counterfeit goods is not a victimless crime.
“It puts UK consumers at risk, undermines honest businesses, and bankrolls serious organised crime. Border Force officers work round the clock to prevent these products entering the country.”
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.
