When The Crowd Roars, Counterfeiters Cash In

Major sporting tournaments create excitement, national pride and a rush for merchandise products to enable fans to show their support. This, as ever, creates a lucrative opportunity for counterfeiters, who capitalise on supporters who are are eager to wear national team kit.

A recent Trading Standards raid in Edinburgh highlighted the scale of the problem, with authorities seizing more than 158,000 fake football shirts, including Scotland and England kits, worth an estimated £5.5 million. This is reportedly one of the UK's largest counterfeit goods raids.

As we enjoy a superb summer of sport, demand for official sporting merchandise rises sharply. Counterfeit sellers exploit this demand by offering imitation kits, shirts and other memorabilia at heavily discounted prices, often through online marketplaces and social media channels, and other unregulated channels of trade.