Firefighters issue warning to fans against buying fake football shirts

Firefighters issue a warning to fans against buying fake football shirts, police also seizing fake kits worth £18m in a UK crackdown.

A video has emerged, including a demonstration which saw shirts of cheap materials ignite and melt away incredibly fast.

Fans have responded by saying football club/sports manufacturers should make football shirts more affordable to prevent the increase in ‘fake’ football shirts.

Why firefighters are warning against buying fake football shirts ⚠️🔥 pic.twitter.com/8f9Rz8rQip

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Dave Jackson of Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service told BBC Sport: “It’s quite clear that the counterfeit one melted as soon as the burner went on it started to melt.

“Really had to try to make the genuine one sort of ignite and melt.

“You can see the deposits on the floor where it’s dripped, it’s melted and dripped away which would catch fire to something else.

“Extremely dangerous, obviously the heat can climb as well so when it comes to Halloween time we’ve seen where it’s caught sort of fake cobwebs and things and you know non genuine items and it’ll just reach and reach up until it hits the ceiling.

“So as you can see if that was a pile of clothes, that would ignite other things that aren’t as flammable.”

Kate Caffrey, Head of Intelligence, IPO, said: “They’re not subject to health and safety regulations, British standards, EU standards.

“We’ve got evidence that counterfeit goods are made in appalling conditions, so you just don’t know what’s in them, how they’re being made.

“There’s also the financial element to it, so you don’t know where your money’s going.

“These are criminal networks, criminal gangs operating, and we’ve got evidence to show that counterfeiting is connected to wider serious organised crime.

“So the price of a fake shirt, you don’t know what you’re funding with that money.”

Last week, Sky Sports reported that 58,000 counterfeit World Cup football shirts were seized with retail value in excess of £5.5m in the UK.

Geraint Hughes said in his report: “I am somewhere in the UK. I’m not allowed to tell you exactly where I am, but I’m in an enormous warehouse and I am surrounded by counterfeit fake football shirts. Thousands. Thousands and thousands and thousands.

“This is the result of the largest ever seizure from a multi-agency law enforcement.

“So, police trading standards. In this case, it’s the city of Edinburgh trading standards because this raid happened in Edinburgh.

“The intellectual property office here are 58,000 football shirts. They are all World Cup shirts. I’m going to stand on this. One, two, three, four, five deep. Same again over this side as well. Nine tons of football shirts and they’re all fake.

“As I say, it’s the largest ever seizure, here the operation which was intelligence led, they’ve been working on this for several months until the raid of which now everything has been seized. World Cup focus. So you’ve got England shirts. We have got a kids Mbappe shirt, a French shirt. We have got Ronaldo’s Portugal shirt. We’ve got kids and adults Scotland shirts as well. So, we’ve got England, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, and France here, but everything is fake.

“Now, the sophistication of this as well. I’m just going to go back here as to this operation is unreal because you wouldn’t necessarily know because everything is packed as it would be if it were to go to a legitimate high street retailer, all in the correct packaging, all with barcodes which actually relate to something. If these were scanned it would somehow relate to something as well.

“I’m just going to go back and get another England shirt from down here as well to show you make the point how well the packaging is cause it’s not just the shirts as well. We’ve got Yamal over there. Harry Kane’s the away shirt here and they are pretty convincing as well.

“Inside it comes in packaging exactly how you would expect it if you bought it legitimately from a shop as well. There are some giveaways as well because there are dangers with these shirts as well.

“These will be upcycled. They’re not going to destroy them. They’re not going to incinerate them. There’s so much they’re going to try and find a way of reusing in the way whether they are going to cushions for example for pet cushions but also another way.

“But they have never had a hall like this before have all the law enforcement agencies involved as I say trading standards, intellectual property office, the police as well and also the importance of brand protection officers as well that can legitimately work out what is legitimate, what is fake and and some of the areas as well.

“I think we’ve about a month or so ago before the World Cup began, we explained a couple of areas where these shirts where you can see there are apps. There’s an app called KitLegit which you can look at and you can take photos of the collar around this part as well here as well. This is what makes it look so legitimate. Sort of the little sort of decals that are on here as well, but some of the stitching as well.

“So, the danger they’re talking about as well is all these proceeds, all this money is not going to stay here in the UK. It comes from organised crime.

“You got people that are being forced to make these goods. And also as well, now I’ve got this in my hand, you can feel there’s something a little bit wrong with it, a little bit cheap with it as well.

“There are potentially some harmful dyes and toxins in these shirts as well. So they’re the dangers of this as well.

“But in terms of the sheer amount, this is just absolutely incredible. We’ve been given this exclusive access. We have got crate after crate after crate of football. As I say, 58,000 items of fake football shirts. We’ve got shorts in here as well. We’ve got socks, but they’ve only concentrated on the here and now. Only World Cup shirts are here. As I mentioned, those five teams are here as well.

“But the worrying thing as well, why this operation they hope will lead to even more sieges in the future is this has been targeted just for the World Cup. Obviously, people looking to buy the shirts. They’re targeting the teams obviously Spain, Portugal tonight, but the players as well that people are interested here in the UK as well.

“But they do feel that throughout the country there will be these centers that are making counterfeit shirts of all the clubs as well. And they’re hoping a lot of the intelligence gathered the learnings from these seizures over the last couple of weeks as well.

“They will be able to find more around club shirts that are being made in this country because they are absolutely 100% sure there are many of these centers around the UK but they are on to them as I say this is the biggest ever seizure of counterfeit goods in the UK 58,000 shirts 9 and a half tons the retail value 5 and a half million so I’m the last person that’ll be able to look at these because very short shortly they will all be packaged back up and they’ll be taken off to be upcycled, not destroyed, upcycled.”