Kit’s a load of old phoney
Everton top the fake kits table
PREMIER League strugglers Everton have topped one table – for fake footie shirts.
More knock-off strips for Frank Lampard’s side were seized at UK ports than for any other team.
Figures for 2021 put relegationthreatened Everton above Man Utd and Merseyside rivals Liverpool.
The kits are made overseas, just like the real thing – but in sweat shops in Cambodia, Thailand and China.
Workers there can make 60 shirts an hour for as little £31 a week.
With official versions of strips often more than £60, the bogus versions can be tempting. But experts say they can be linked to crime and exploitation.
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau said: “Buying a counterfeit shirt for yourself or your kids will save you money in the short-term but you are likely to be buying a poor product that will quickly
start to show signs of wear.
Greed
“You could be putting money into the pocket of organised crime and helping fund their wider operations. If you want to show your support for your team stay well away from the stalls and websites pushing fake replica shirts.”
UK Border Force revealed 1,826 fake Everton shirts were found in 2021, 886 for Man Utd, 732 for Liverpool, 481 for Wolves and 54 for Chelsea.
There were also 2,405 England shirts seized as criminals cashed in on Euro 2020, which was delayed until 2021.
But the seizures were the tip of the iceberg as fans balked at paying £69.95 for official Nike England tops.
Market stall traders said fans were buying them as a “poke in the eye to corporate greed” because of the high price of official strips.
The Border Force figures were supplied to freebets.com, which submitted a Freedom of Information request.
The site’s Tim Agnew wondered how many fake shirts “slipped through the net and were sold at full market price to fans thinking they were the genuine article”.
In 2019 Stuart Young, 46, of Redditch, Worcestershire, got a 12-month community order for selling fake kits on the internet.