The official jersey for 110 euros or the fake for a tenth of the price? In the run-up to the 2026 World Cup, the constant rise in the price of jerseys is driving many fans into a parallel market. This offers ultra-realistic replicas, but is controlled by criminal networks.
“It’s almost impossible to tell the difference between the two,” boasts one member on an online forum about his purchase. He purchased a fake Spain 2026 jersey and received it within ten days.
The brand logo is embroidered in the right place and the artistic details are incorporated as watermarks. He praises the “very solid craftsmanship” of this forger. The counterfeiters offer jerseys for around 15 euros. These include the new jerseys that Mbappé, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lamine Yamal and others will wear at the World Cup this summer. The World Cup will take place from June 11th to July 19th in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
“Today anyone can buy a fake football shirt online,” lamented Delphine Sarfati, general director of the French manufacturers’ association Union des fabricants (Unifab), to AFP. She notes that counterfeit seizures have quadrupled since 2020. In addition, counterfeiting accounts for 15 percent of the market share in sporting goods.
Entire factories
“We went from the Italian mom making them in a backyard workshop to entire factories in China,” she warns.
Yann Ambach, head of the tariff and trade policy office at the French customs authority, shares this assessment with AFP. “We are dealing here with large-scale fraud, criminal networks and multiple crimes (…). It is not harmless to produce, transport and buy a counterfeit.” He adds: “You support criminal networks, which leads to fewer jobs, loss of know-how and lost taxes.”
“We clearly see an increase in the number of seized counterfeits at major international sporting events,” he emphasizes. 30 percent of all confiscations concern ‘games, toys and sporting goods’.
The growing appeal of these illegal products is explained in particular by the skyrocketing official prices. Depending on the version, the jerseys can cost over 160 euros.
For economist Richard Duhautois, the jersey will become “a luxury product.” The price increase is the result of a fragmented value chain, he explains to AFP. This is a far cry from the pure manufacturing costs in the factory. Production is outsourced to low-wage Asian countries and does not account for more than ten percent of the final price.
According to the co-author of the book ‘Foot Business’ (Odile Jacob, 2026), 35 percent of the jersey price goes to the retailers. 25 percent goes to the supplier, between eight and 15 percent to the club or association. Five percent goes to transportation and the rest is taxes.
Jersey as a fashion statement
The economist emphasizes that this system benefits the teams twice. The share collected by the suppliers is used to finance huge sponsorship contracts. An example is the contract between Nike and the French association for more than 100 million euros annually.
Given this complex ecosystem, the parallel market functions with “massive production” but “without license, without marketing,” he notes. This is how he explains the low prices charged by counterfeiters.
Hippolyte Neind, co-founder of Parisian vintage jersey boutique LineUp, “understands people turning to fakes in the face of inflation.” Especially since the imitations have made a big leap in quality. This makes it difficult for his expertise to distinguish the real from the fake. “With the new jerseys they are made better and better, you really have to go into detail.”
In his opinion, the boundary between the two worlds is often very narrow at the source. “I think they probably come from the same factories (…). There are many companies in Asia that produce for the suppliers during the day and for a second network at night.”
Eventually, he realizes that the appeal of jerseys is no longer reserved just for the “ardent soccer fans” who used to crowd his boutique. “We’ve had a new customer base for five or six years. These people wear the jersey as a fashion statement, because of its aesthetic.” Whether it is real or fake.
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