THE headquarters of the English, French and Danish football associations were raided by inspectors acting for the European Commission yesterday.

Investigators searched the headquarters of the English FA for eight hours as part of an inquiry into the multi-million pound world market for footballs. The officials - two from the directorate-general of competition and two from the Office of Fair Trading - are expected to return today to inspect other documents.

EC spokesman Willy Helin said the inspectors were seeking evidence connected with a scheme, adopted by FIFA in August 1994; under which a royalty is charged on footballs given FIFA's seal of approval.

Under the recently revised royalty system, FIFA charges two Swiss francs (£1.05) per ball used in competitive matches and one Swiss franc for balls used in training matches, down from three and 1.5 Swiss francs previously.

According to calculations given to the Commission the royalties and other charges can amount to eight Swiss francs a ball. The balls carry the FIFA logo and are tested by its experts in Switzerland.

Helin said the Commission was acting on complaints from sports shops, in particular in Germany. "The complaints related to the licensing system and the related levy that FIFA imposed on footballs used during official matches," the spokesman said.

The raid on the English FA premises was justified by the fact that the FA had apparently put pressure on FIFA to introduce the system, he said.

The Commission could not legally obtain the information it sought from the FIFA's headquarters in Zurich because Switzerland is not an EU member.

Helin said that ultimately the Commission would have to assess whether other national football associations were involved in what would then be an illegal cartel under EU competition law.

He said 40 million footballs were produced each year of which eight million were used in international competition.

A spokesman for the French Football Federation (FFF) said two inspectors, accompanied by four policemen and carrying a warrant issued by the EC, checked mail between the FFF and FIFA. A spokesman for the federation said the inspectors left without taking any documents.