Inside the £1-an-hour official football shirt factories
SportsLanguage: English

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

Key Takeaways

  • Workers in Cambodia earn less than £1 an hour making official kits for top clubs.
  • Factories like Bowker and Trax supply major teams including Arsenal, Liverpool, and Celtic.
  • Employees report extreme heat, verbal abuse, and high daily output quotas.
  • Suppliers claim to use regular audits, but activists call the conditions grim.

A BBC Sport investigation has revealed that workers producing official football kits for major clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool, and Celtic are paid less than £1 an hour in Cambodian factories. Employees at facilities such as the Bowker Garment Factory and Trax Apparel report harsh conditions, including temperatures exceeding 35C, verbal abuse, and intense production pressures.

The findings highlight a stark contrast between soaring retail prices for fans—often exceeding £85 per shirt—and the meager wages earned by the garment workers on the production lines. While sportswear giants like Adidas maintain that they conduct regular factory audits and enforce strict workplace standards, advocates argue that systemic labor issues remain widespread.

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