British designer Diana Al Shammari has accused Belgian football club K. Beerschot V.A. of plagiarism. She says the club copied her concept of floral embroidery on football jerseys, and is now threatening legal action.
Football club Beerschot announced its new away kits on Tuesday morning, including a limited edition jersey. Now, this jersey is the subject of a heated debate between Al Shammari and the CEO of the company that designed the shirts on Instagram.
"I have pioneered this floral embroidery concept in football for eight years, working with major brands, clubs, footballers, and musicians. Seeing it copied in such a bad, lazy and uncreative way – with no credit or collaboration – is really disappointing," Al Shammari reacted to Beerschot's post introducing the kits.
"It's one thing when random factories in China rip it off, it's another when a supposedly professional club does it," she said. "Honestly, it is embarrassing."
'Inspired'
In the past, Al Shammari has made similar designs for shirts for Bayern Munich, Manchester City, and even Belgium's own Red Devils. Sometimes even in collaboration with sports brand Adidas.
That design now graces the new limited-edition jersey for the football club from Antwerp. While she says that it is unacceptable that this was done without her permission, the makers of the Beerschot shirt see things quite differently.
"Yes, we were inspired by you," Arthur Heeren, the CEO of Nova, which made the jerseys, responded to Al Shammari's comment on the Instagram post. Nova claims to guarantee "local craftsmanship," "sustainable production in Portugal," and "no margin-chasing factories, no empty promises."
Heeren added that he even reached out to the British designer on 16 June 2025 with a request to collaborate, but never received a reply. "When our designer proposed this kit, without knowing your work, I thought that I had seen something like this before."
When he did not receive a response, the company continued without her and created the kit in close collaboration with the club, he explained. "No one 'invents' a style in football shirts forever. The game thrives on inspiration, reinvention, and creativity. We should be celebrating more beautiful ideas in football, not trying to shut them down."
However, the discussion continued in the comments of the post. Al Shammari referred to European and Belgian copyright law, highlighting that it protects the "original expression of ideas, including the specific arrangement, composition, and style of my embroidery designs, from the moment they are created."
She stressed that the kit Nova designed for Beerschot "goes beyond simple inspiration" and "imitates parts of my creative work that are protected." While Al Shammari said that she is open to a solution, she added that she will take "all necessary steps to protect [her] work and enforce [her] rights" if no solution is forthcoming.
In an initial response, Beerschot told VRT that, to their knowledge, the kit is a design by clothing manufacturer Nova. Additionally, only 200 copies of the limited edition shirt have been made.
