The Premier League, its clubs and law-enforcement authorities will came together at the "Football Against Fakes" anti-counterfeiting conference last week.
The conference offered a platform for delegates to hear from industry experts, see first-hand the difference between official merchandise and inferior fake goods as well as enabling them to develop key working relationships.
Now in its seventh year, enforcement officials from around the world attended the conference at Emirates Stadium.
Representatives from clubs joined international representatives from the National Football League, Interpol, Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in speaking during a full programme.
The day also included a panel discussion about successful strategies to reduce the sale of counterfeit products within the sports industry, with expert input from clubs, PUMA, the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center in the US and the Anti-Counterfeiting Group.
The Premier League’s Anti-Counterfeiting Programme targets the online and offline sale and distribution of fake products around the world.
Over the course of last season, the programme seized more than 105,000 counterfeit items worth more than £7million. These results take the total value of fake products physically recovered to almost 2.5million items, worth £46million since the programme began in 2007.
Meanwhile online action to prevent counterfeit goods reaching fans also continues and over the past season the Premier League removed almost 200,000 online listings, worth over £3 million. This figure does not consider clubs' own seizures and those of kit manufacturers.
Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Premier League has continued to make huge strides in tackling counterfeiting in football over the last three years.
Working together with the clubs, partners and law enforcement, the League is committed to reducing the sale and distribution of counterfeit products around the world.