Guangdong counterfeit football jerseys routed through Belgium, Netherlands and Germany to Spain

Guangdong province in southern China, the world's largest clothing factory hub, is the origin of a major counterfeit football jersey network. Containers leave the province's ports of Nansha (Guangzhou) and Yantian (Shenzhen) and head to three key European hubs—Antwerp in Belgium, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Hamburg in Germany—where lax inspection rates allow the illegal cargo to pass unnoticed.

From those ports the fake kits travel by truck through France into Spain, where they are stored in logistics centres around Madrid and Barcelona before being delivered to buyers, often via e‑commerce sites promoted by influencers. A joint operation by Spain's National Police, Interpol, Europol, OLAF and EUIPO seized 16 tonnes of counterfeit clothing, arrested 73 people and highlighted the scale of the scheme, which previously introduced around 2 000 tonnes of falsified goods into Europe.

Authorities noted that only about 3 % of containers arriving at the northern European ports are scanned, enabling the smuggling network to thrive. The crackdown marks the most significant action against football‑shirt fakes in Europe since 2023.