Chips in Strips: Brentford to stop the fake market in match-supported shirts | Brentford

Brentford is supposed to integrate microchips into their shirts on the match day, which prove their authenticity in a step against the growing market for fake football kits.

Starting with the Premier League game against Everton on Wednesday evening, Brentford will be the first English team to carry shirts that offer a digital guarantee for their origin, which is of crucial importance for goods that are often sold for significant sums at an auction .

The club is intended to use the review created by the company Fabricks to demonstrate the authenticity of the kit. Before each match, a chip on the bottom of the shirt is heated. The chip then uses “near -point communication”, similar to the technology that is used in a contactless bank card to scan a smartphone according to information that confirms who is wearing and when.

The increasing popularity of replica football shirts as fashion and collectibles has led to a significant increase in price in recent years, with the match variety dominating the highest premiums. Match shirts of the current Premier League players can be listed for online individual dealers for £ £ £ 1st or more.

However, since the industry has become more lucrative, it has caused an increase in the forgery. Last year, the police of City of London and the Office of intellectual property during the men's European Championship carried out a joint operation, which led to 446,681 GBP by “fake football clothes” that were confiscated by the authorities.

According to Corsearch, a company specializing in the protection of copyright, the sale of fake Premier League shirt is up to £ 180 million per year and the total number of official sales in the 2022-23 season was GBP.

The chip is used by PSV, Feyenoord and Anderlecht. Fabricks is the sister company of Matchwornshirt, the digital platform, on which Brentford auctions its shirts.

The club provides the proceeds of its auctions in the heart of West London, a charity organization that finances research into heart disease and sharpens CPR's awareness, but the technology would also be effective if the shirt is then sold again. Adam Ward, Brentford's head of the partnerships, said he was “pleased” to agree with the deal.