Just when you thought you’d heard all the arguments against counterfeit jerseys, officials in the United Kingdom have added a brand new one: They might be hazardous to your health.
With the Christmas season ramping up and club kits at the top of many soccer-crazy kids’ wish lists, parents might be looking at counterfeits as a budget-friendly alternative in a time of rising costs and inflation. But according to a BBC article published last week, health officials in the U.K. have issued a warning that “sub-standard materials” used to manufacture counterfeit jerseys could be harmful.
“We just don’t know what’s in these kits — they could pose a health risk,” said Louise Baxter-Scott, an official with Trading Standards, the local authority departments that enforce consumer protection legislation in the United Kingdom. “They are poorly made but look legitimate, and the pressure of Christmas, plus the increase in cost of living, creates a greater consumer vulnerability and pushes people towards a cheaper alternative.”
Chloe Long, deputy director general of the Anti-Counterfeiting Group, has spent a lot of her career researching counterfeit soccer jerseys and following the supply chain back to factories in China. She told the BBC that, given the lack of safety regulations in those factories, harmful toxins or dyes might be used to manufacture them, which could cause irritation.
“It’s very difficult to know retrospectively what’s been put into the product, but you can see in some instances that they could be harmful,” Long said. “And they don’t follow any regulations. They’re not bound by the same legalities and regulations the genuine manufacturers are.”
She added that the only thing that motivates counterfeiters is money.
“Whatever they can get their hands on to make this look as close to the real thing as possible, they will do that,” she said. “So you don’t know what could happen when you put that in the washing machine with other products and, particularly if you’re buying it for children, this is just not a risk that you should be taking.”
According to the same BBC article, an adult men’s Premier League shirt can range in price from £60 to £85 ($80-$112 US), and can even run up to £120 ($158 US) with printed names, numbers and badges. But counterfeit shirts are being sold online for as little as £12 ($16 US).
The BBC approached several fans outside a recent Premier League match, and almost all of them said they’d purchased a kit they knew was fake.
“It’s so easy to,” said one fan in his 20s. “Why would you spend £120 when you could get it for £20-25? And especially for people of my age group that maybe don’t have that much money.”
Cost was also a factor for a fan with two young sons. “If you buy the original brands, I think we’re up to £70-£80 now even for a kids one,” he told the BBC. “But we had a bad experience recently (with a fake) in terms of the quality. It lasted a day.”
Aside from the health risks, the Anti-Counterfeiting Group also warns that fake kit buyers could also be giving their personal and banking information to organized crime groups.
Buying counterfeit kits isn’t illegal in the U.K., but selling them is. A conviction is punishable by a prison sentence up to 10 years and “an unlimited fine.” In May 2024, a man convicted of selling fake kits was ordered to repay more than £118,000 ($150,000 US) or face time in prison.
The Premier League told the BBC that its own anti-counterfeiting efforts have resulted in the seizure of 1.1 million fake kits — worth more than £70 million ($92.6 million US) — between 2020 and 2025 and has helped remove more than a million online listings.
