The Brighton does not want to have copies

Recently, everyone has gone crazy for look-alike contests, non-competitive competitions in which the most similar look-alikes of actors and actresses are sought after, from Timothée Chalamet to Paul Mescal or Harry Styles. However, Brighton does not seem to share the same opinion. The English club has informed Jadran-Galeb, a non-professional team from Croatia, to stop using their logo as it is very similar to the one introduced in 2011 by the Seagulls. For now, there will be no legal action, but just a formal warning to stop using the crest on jerseys, facilities, and official communications of Jadran-Galeb. As it often happens, Jadran-Galeb did not have a real reason to copy Brighton's logo.

The club was founded in 2001 from the merger of two village clubs, NK Jadran (founded in 1947) and NK Galeb (founded in 1963), and chose the seagull as its symbol, despite neither of the two villages being near the Adriatic Sea or having any connection to the bird. On the other hand, Brighton adopted its logo in 1977, after the Sussex team was known as The Dolphins during the 1974-75 season, before switching to the Seagulls several years later. The last rebranding was done in 2011, reversing the direction of the seagull.

Of course, this is not the first time that a lower league club has borrowed the emblem of a professional team without asking. In February 2022, the City Group warned Santiago City, a third division team from Chile, for plagiarism, as their logo was too similar to that of Manchester City. However, for one of its other teams, the New York City FC, City Football Club took inspiration directly from Inter's old logo. In short, it is unlikely that smaller or even non-professional teams will stop taking inspiration from more famous and successful clubs. Perhaps a bit more humor is needed in these situations.