Artist to sue Sunderland AFC over away kit design

Andrew Small said the pattern on the shirt breached his copyright [PA Media] An artist is planning to take legal action against Sunderland after the Premier League club printed what he claims is an image of one of his sculptures on its away kit without his permission. Andrew Small, from Liverpool, was commissioned by Sunderland City Council in 2008 to create a sculpture, named 'C', to mark the end of the Sea to Sea cycle path. Cyclists completing the Whitehaven to Sunderland route are greeted with a view of Roker Lighthouse through an aperture, carved into a six-and-a-half-tonne slab of black granite.

Sunderland has denied breaching copyright legislation in letters to Small's legal team, which is seeking a percentage of commercial sales of the kit or damages. The 2025/26 away kit, manufactured by sportswear firm Hummel, features a repeating geometric pattern showing the lighthouse, viewed through a circular design resembling the sculpture's aperture. At the time, the club said the shirt was inspired by its away kit from the 1989-91 season , when the club was still at its previous ground, Roker Park, which is just a short walk from the lighthouse.

"[The sculpture is] highly mirrored, polished granite, and it reflects the environments and the light," Small told the BBC. "It looks like a bit of 3D generated artwork in the landscape sometimes, depending on how the light hits it. "It's faceted, like a camera shutter.

So carved into this six-and-a-half-tonne piece of ground are these curved shapes, which make it quite distinctive. "It's not just a square with a hole in it, it's quite a specific form. " As part of the agreement with the council, Small retained copyright for the sculpture - with any reproduction of it for commercial reasons requiring a separate agreement.