Finished sports gear available for sale. Photo: Martin Wurt / Oxfam AUS

Some staggering stats to mull over: Nike pays a mammoth US $16 million (nearly £9 million) a year to the Brazilian national football team. Adidas pays USD $1.8 million (nearly £1 million) per year to French player Zinedine Zidane.

Meanwhile, the Asian workers who make the football boots and gear worn by players like England’s Frank Lampard or Holland’s Arjen Robben are paid as little as US$0.60 (roughly 32p) per hour or US$4.75 (around £2.50) for a standard working day. The women making brand-name sportswear in Indonesia need to work nearly four hours to earn enough to purchase 1.5kg of raw chicken from the cheapest local supermarket. For some, it’s all the meat they can afford for a month.

Workers at a Bangkok sportswear factory. Photo: Clean Clothes Campaign

An Oxfam report has discovered that sports workers like these may be sacked or threatened with violence when they organise unions to push for better pay and conditions.

The majority of Asian sportswear workers are women from poor communities, many supporting children and families. None of the big sports brands are doing enough to solve the problems.

Fila football boots. Photo: Martin Wurt / Oxfam AUS

Oxfam’s year-long survey of 12 sporting labels found that FILA was bottom of the league and had failed to address serious labour abuses in its supply chain. In one case, a FILA sport shoe supplier in Indonesia with an appalling record of worker abuse closed suddenly and without warning. A year later, none of its 3,500 workers have received any back-pay or severance pay. FILA refuses to reveal its role in the closure or take responsibility for the workers.

Reebok has done the most to uphold sportswear workers' rights in Asia, while other big brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma and Asics have improved over the past year. Find out how the big brands compare >>

Kluawan Viengnon previously worked in a Thai factory which supplied Nike, Adidas, Fila and other companies. Conditions were very poor – during busy times workers were offered amphetamines to help them work through the night. After that factory closed, Kluawan and other workers formed their own collectively-managed factory which produces for the Fairtrade market. Photo: Junya Yimprasert

Despite improvements, the performance of the sports industry as a whole remains poor. The Panarub factory near Jakarta, Indonesia, makes the Adidas' Predator Pulse boots promoted by stars like David Beckham, France’s Patrick Viera and Spain’s Raul, as well as the +F50.6 Tunit boots sported by Holland’s Arjen Robben, Germany’s Kevin Kuranyi and Brazil’s Ze Roberto.

Recently, the factory sacked 30 union workers who took part in a legal strike for more pay. Workers there receive as little as 32p an hour for their labour and need better pay to meet dramatic rises in the cost of living. Adidas has made some improvements in health and safety and other working conditions at this factory in the past but has refused to help the 30 sacked workers get their jobs back.