Last but not least: Cheaper than the police allow

 
The Geneva police force has just become the latest victim of Uefa's rigid brand protection policy and - it has to be said - of its own ignorance. Apparently euphoric about the forthcoming European Championships, they have had 500 police T-shirts and 300 police caps printed with the Uefa Euro logo. Apparently neither the supplier nor the police were aware at first that this would inevitably lead to the first possible trampling on the battlefield of brand protection. The faux pas was only discovered by the police's own counterfeiting department. "We stopped the project immediately," confirmed a police spokesperson in a report by the Tribune de Genève newspaper. The excuse given by the Geneva police was that the supplier had previously enjoyed the full confidence of the police. In this case, however, he had not obtained Uefa's consent. The police, on the other hand, had assumed that everything was in order, said the spokesperson.
The T-shirts, which were primarily intended for the Geneva police corps but also for sale, will now not be sold. Surprisingly, Uefa has not demanded that the textiles, which cost CHF 10,000, be destroyed. They are now simply being distributed free of charge as part of police promotional events. There is something nice about this episode, because it illustrates that everything is actually fine. Taxpayers' money evaporates around Uefa and things are, er, cheaper than the police allow.