Counterfeit football shirts worth over £18m were seized in the UK during the course of the World Cup because of safety concerns, with the Fire Service warning the outfits can be a…

Some 220,000 fake strips were seized across the UK in the lead-up to the World Cup Counterfeit football shirts worth over £18m were seized in the UK during the course of the World Cup because of safety concerns. The tournament produced a spike in the sales of fake shirts and kits, but the Fire Service has warned that these items are far more flammable and dangerous than the genuine articles. More than 220,000 pieces of football merchandise were recovered by the Police Intellectual Property Office as part of Operation Bloxwich, a UK police enforcement effort targeting counterfeit goods. One raid involved 1,618 fake strips being taken from a warehouse in Birmingham, including replicas of star players such as France's Kylian Mbappe and Norway's Erling Haaland. Detective Sergeant Jamie Kirk, who took part in the operation, told BBC Sport: "I understand why people want to buy these shirts, people love football and the incentive is the lower price - but these shirts, they're not regulated and could be highly flammable. "They have dyes in them which could be harmful to skin, particularly children's skin. While the cost is lower - and that's the attractive part - potential damages to you and the people making them is just far too high." Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service tested the flammability of counterfeit shirts compared with genuine kit and found the fake kits were much more flammable.