Liverpudlian artist sues Everton for using church drawing without permission
Liverpudlian artist sues Everton for using church drawing without permission
Ben RumsbyMon, May 11, 2026 at 2:30 PM UTC
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Frank Green’s drawing of St Domingo Methodist Church was originally used on a wrap around at Goodison Park (left) in 2022
Everton are being sued by a “renowned and celebrated” Liverpool artist for displaying a giant reproduction of one of his works at their stadium without his consent.
Frank Green, whose paintings and drawings have been provided to the Queen Mother, Margaret Thatcher, the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury – as well as several Liverpool footballers – has lodged a “copyright infringement” claim at the High Court.
The claim relates to a signed copy of a drawing of St Domingo Methodist Church, at which Everton were founded as St Domingo FC in 1878 before being renamed the following year.
A copy of the artwork featured for around three years on a “wrap-around” installation on the exterior of the Goodison Park, the club’s former home, before their move last summer to the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
The drawing formed part of a timeline of Everton’s history and was still viewable on Monday via Google Maps, which had last been at that location in July 2024.
Particulars of claim lodged on behalf of Green, 83, stated he created the original artwork in 1974.
St Domingo’s, based in the Liverpool district of Everton, was demolished the following year.
Green’s claim stated he first became aware that a copy of his drawing had been used in the Goodison Park wraparound in August 2022 and notified Everton of their “copyright infringement” via lawyers two months later.
It goes on to state: “Notwithstanding said notification, the defendant knowingly and deliberately continued to display the defendant’s infringing images on the stadium until at the earliest May 2025 or the latest October 2025.”
Green has sketched former Liverpool footballers, horses owned by the late Queen Mother and Pope John Paul II - James Maloney
Green is seeking redress from Everton, with his claim stating “market value” for a licence to use such an image would be in the region of £10,000 per year increasing to £15,000 for the years 2024 and 2025, and that the club’s conduct warranted the award of “additional damages”.
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The claim sets out Green’s credentials, calling him “a renowned and celebrated artist who has created artwork of Liverpool’s landscape and the Merseyside area for more than 50 years”.
It stated that one of his paintings entitled The Last Game at the Kop sold at auction for £22,500 in November 2013.
It lists a number of “well-known persons” who either have been shown, provided with, or purchased his artwork, including former Liverpool footballers Bruce Grobbelaar, Ian Callaghan, Brian Hall, Roy Evans and Mark Wright.
Also cited is the late Queen Mother, with Green said to have painted her horses at Aintree racecourse and gone to Kensington Palace each year to present her with a print of each picture.
Baroness Thatcher, the former Prime Minister, is said to have been given a picture called Tall Ships in Liverpool during a visit to a gallery owned by Green in the 1980s.
That same decade, Pope John Paul II is understood to have been presented with a framed print of Green’s painting of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral during a visit to Rome by the Liverpool Catholic Cathedral Choir.
Others listed include the former King and Queen of Spain, Britain’s longest-serving deputy Prime Minister, Lord Prescott, Cilla Black and Sir Nat Lofthouse.
In 2013, Green gave an interview to the Liverpool Echo in which he listed his top-10 paintings, among which was one of Anfield Methodist Church close to Liverpool Football Club’s home stadium.
He said: “I used to go to the football regularly at both Anfield and Goodison. I was mad about football.”
Everton and Green both declined to comment further on his legal claim.
Source: “AOL Money”
