Inside the £1-an-hour official football shirt factories

What the report says

BBC Sport reports that an investigation into official football shirt production traced authentic replica kits for clubs including Arsenal, Celtic, Liverpool and Real Madrid to two factories in Cambodia. The article says workers at Bowker Garment Factory and Trax Apparel were paid a basic wage of less than £1 an hour, with monthly earnings that complied with local minimum wage rules but still left some employees struggling to cover rent, food and utilities. The report was published after fans complained about rising shirt prices and some turned to cheaper counterfeit versions.

According to the BBC, employees described difficult conditions on production lines in and around Phnom Penh, including temperatures above 35C, heavy output targets, verbal abuse when quotas were missed and safety concerns involving electrical equipment. The story also notes that much of the work involved sewing, ironing and packaging, with some workers saying they handled hundreds of items a day. BBC Sport said it saw documents and photographs from inside the factories and interviewed workers anonymously.

Adidas, which supplies several Premier League clubs, said it has long-standing workplace standards, conducts audits and works with suppliers to address problems. Trax said its workers’ average monthly pay was higher than the local minimum, while Bowker did not respond. More broadly, the BBC places the findings in the context of Cambodia’s garment sector, where low pay and heat stress have been widely reported, and of a football shirt market where retail prices can be far higher than the cost of manufacture.