Allegations of unfair play in production of Euro 2008 footballs

Crédit Suisse is donating a million Swiss francs ($1million, £490,000) to the United Nations children’s fund after reports that child labour in Pakistan was used to make Euro 2008 footballs given away in its branches. It is now investigating the allegations that minors and locals did the work at half the usual rate.

The bank said its Swiss contractor and the Pakistani manufacturer had signed a code of conduct reflecting the standards for fair working conditions set by the International Labour Organization.

‘Nonetheless,’ it said, ‘Crédit Suisse cannot exclude with absolute certainty at this time that children may have been involved in part of the football manufacture by the producer in Pakistan or their sub-suppliers, respectively.’ Even the hint that the child labour ban had been violated was unacceptable.