Football fans have been warned they could risk being removed from their stadium for wearing counterfeit club shirts.
Ahead of Sheffield Wednesday’s opening Championship fixture, the club urged supporters to think twice about sporting knock-offs at Hillsborough – prompting outrage from fans.
A club “brand protection” statement threatened that anyone found to be wearing a fake shirt inside the ground could be asked to leave, with “information passed on to the relevant parties”.
As to why the ban has been put in place, the club claimed counterfeit shirts were “potentially unsafe due to materials used” and their “sales impact directly on club revenues” – which drew significant ire from the Wednesday faithful.
Anyone found to be wearing a fake shirt inside the ground could be asked to leave
PA
Wednesday issued a club “brand protection” statement ahead of its opening fixture
Sheffield Wednesday FC
On social media, supporters jabbed that “in 10 years, you’ll have to scan your shirt electronically to prove it’s authentic any time you enter a stadium”.
One fumed: “Imagine kicking out some kid who’s wearing a fake shirt because their parent couldn’t afford a real one.”
Further comments highlighted the apparent un-enforceability of the rules, with one writing: “Can’t imagine getting the stewards to give a s**t enough to check, let alone talk to someone about it.
Another added: “I can’t see them sending some poor f**ker out into the crowd to check if someone’s shirt is legit or not.”
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Fans can expect to shell out north of £75 for a men’s shirt – or up to £60 for a baby-sized kit
PA/Sheffield Wednesday FC
But most of the online sentiment from fans has laid the blame squarely at the club’s door, with hundreds stating official Wednesday merchandise is too expensive for average fans.
One said: “It’s just too expensive otherwise… Football is historically a working-class sport and fans are being priced out of the game,” to which another replied: “WAS a working-class sport. Now they are willing to milk us for anything. Shameful.”
Other fans claimed the statement came from club higher-ups, with one saying: “This smells like the kind of decision that gets made high up in a club and has to be enacted by the other 99 per cent of people involved with the club, who know it’s a dreadful and tone-deaf idea.”
Sheffield Wednesday’s club kits, made by Italian manufacturers Macron, cost up to £77 for an adult men’s long-sleeve strip and £60 for a baby-size shirt – and that’s not factoring in sleeve badges, name or number printing.
Fans looking to emulate top Wednesday players raged at kit prices
PA
And the club counselled that fans need only look to Wednesday’s online shop or physical Owls Megastore to buy officially-licensed kit.
It said: “Brand protection teams work together with the relevant authorities to remove counterfeit selling websites and will continue to do so. Offline, all parties concerned will remain diligent in making every effort to close down the illegal trade of counterfeit goods.”
Though it acknowledged it could not prevent fans wearing fake jerseys at away fixtures, the club issued a “respectful request” that fakes should not be worn inside the stadium.
GB News has approached Sheffield Wednesday for comment.
Source Agencies
