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66,000 fake football shirts seized ahead of the World Cup
Football fever ahead of the World Cup is also fuelling a parallel business: fake shirts. Police have seized more than 66,000 counterfeit items in an operation spanning Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and several towns in Alicante, just as demand for kits begins to soar.
The operation has resulted in 95 people being arrested for offences against industrial property. In total, officers have confiscated 16 tonnes of shirts imitating national team and club kits, many of them linked to high-profile players.
The investigation began in April, when police detected a steady flow of counterfeit shirts destined for the Spanish market. Among the items were models associated with stars such as Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal, two names capable of boosting sales as the World Cup countdown intensifies.
The Spanish national team was one of the main draws for the network. According to the investigation, the clandestine sale of these shirts could have generated up to two million euros in illegal income and caused losses of around seven million euros for official channels.
Raids were carried out in warehouses, homes, storage facilities and street markets, highlighting the logistical scale of the operation. This was not just about occasional street sales, but a structure set up to distribute thousands of items across different cities.
This type of product tends to appear in force during periods of high demand: major matches, finals, celebrations, sporting events or international tournaments. The price difference attracts many buyers, but also hits legitimate shops, distributors and small businesses that do work with authorised products.
The operation involved international coordination through Europol e Interpol, as well as cooperation from organisations specialising in intellectual property. Authorities point out that counterfeiting not only affects major sports brands, but also fuels opaque distribution networks and reduces income for the formal economy.
The crackdown comes at a key moment for football-related trade. With the World Cup approaching, a shirt can become a souvenir, a bar uniform, a family gift or an impulse buy before a match. That’s why controlling the fake market is not just a matter for brands: it also affects how consumption shifts during major sporting events.