皇冠体育app

Criminal gangs trading in counterfeit football shirts face seeing their profits slashed after the UK Border Agency and replica kit manufacturers launched a major crackdown.

A聽week of action is being led at Coventry鈥檚 international postal hub which includes anti-counterfeit experts from Adidas, Nike, Puma and Umbro working alongside immigration officials.

Already 3,200 fake shirts for countries such as England, France and Germany have been seized after officers identified them in parcels.

鈥楥heating鈥� football fans

Immigration minister Damian Green, said: 鈥楽mugglers are cheating unsuspecting football fans and undercutting honest businesses. It is estimated that businesses lose 拢11bn a year from counterfeits.

鈥楶eople often don鈥檛 realise that the profits made by these smugglers are ploughed straight back into other criminal activities such as drug smuggling and human trafficking.鈥�

Thousands of fake shirts seized last year

In 2009 more than 50,000 counterfeit replica shirts, worth approximately 拢1.2m, were seized by the UK Border Agency, police and trading standards.

In addition, 21,000 auctions websites, which operate like eBay, were removed last year. 皇冠体育app sites offered more than 150,000 replica shirts for sale, worth 拢1.4m.

皇冠体育app Premier League runs its own anti-counterfeiting programme in partnership with the IP Crime Unit and, working with the shirt manufacturers, has helped coordinate this operation.

If you suspect smuggling

Anyone with information about activity they suspect may be linked to smuggling should call 0800 595 000.