Beginning with Wednesday night’s Premier League fixture against Everton, Brentford will become the first English side to wear shirts that provide a digital guarantee of their provenance, crucial for merchandise often sold for substantial sums at auction.
According to the company Corsearch, which specialises in copyright protection, the sale of counterfeit Premier League shirts generates as much as £180m a year and the total for official sales in season 2022-23 was £480m.
The increasing popularity of replica football shirts as fashion and collector’s items has led to a substantial rise in prices over recent years, with the match-worn variety commanding the highest premiums.
The club gives the proceeds of their auctions to the charity Heart of West London, which funds research into heart disease and raises awareness of CPR, but the technology would also be effective should the shirt then be sold on again.
Brentford are to integrate microchips into their match-day shirts that will prove their authenticity, in a move against the growing market for counterfeit football kits.
