Authorities in Coventry have intercepted a large batch of counterfeit football shirts at a Parcelforce depot, just days before the start of the World Cup.

The depot, one of the UK’s largest mail sorting sites, saw thousands of fake shirts seized by personnel sent from major sports merchandising brands.

Among the football shirt manufacturers alerted to the situation were staff from Adidas, Nike, Puma and Umbro.

The ploy allegedly began when unwitting customers ordered parcels of football shirts from suspicious e-retailers and auction sites.

Syd Rasheed of the Premier League's anti-counterfeiting programme, said: "Many football fans buy what they believe to be genuine replica shirts but end up with poor quality rip-offs.”

He added the money received by fraudsters is often used to fund other types of criminal activity.