Newcastle United represented at Football Against Fakes conference

The event focuses on the issue of counterfeiting within the football industry and saw hundreds of stakeholders including Premier League clubs and partners come together to engage on the topic.

Clubs, including the Magpies, Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City and West Ham United, had stands exhibiting their official merchandise to demonstrate to enforcement agencies the difference between official licensed merchandise and inferior fake goods, while the conference also enabled clubs to develop key working relationships with the authorities who help protect their brands.

Enforcement officials from across the UK, Ireland and the USA were there, while representatives from Arsenal and Watford spoke at the conference, which took place on Wednesday.

Mark Pearson, Newcastle United's Licence Administrator, said: "The Football Against Fakes event is always a fantastic opportunity for us to speak to industry experts regarding the issues and dangers of counterfeit goods being sold bearing the trademarks of Newcastle United.

"We are committed to protecting our fans from counterfeit goods and this event helps forge relationships with UK Trading Standards, Customs and Law Enforcement Agencies as we work together to combat this issue."

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 160,000 counterfeit items worth more than £5 million. These results take the total value of fake products physically recovered to almost £30 million 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 more than 270,000 marketplace listings, worth over £740,000. This figure does not consider clubs' own seizures and those of kit manufacturers.

A spokesperson for the Premier League said: "We have made huge developments in tackling counterfeiting in football since creating our programme.

"No fan should feel the disappointment of purchasing inferior quality fake products. Working together with the clubs, our partners and law enforcement, we are committed to reducing the sale and distribution of counterfeit products around the world and Football Against Fakes is an important part of that."

More about Newcastle United's brand protection can be found here, while supporters can email [email protected] should they suspect any counterfeit Newcastle United goods either in stores or online.