Manchester United Accused of Copying NFT Artist For Its Own Collection

Lucréce, an NFT artist, reported on Twitter on December 28 that he is in talks with Arthur Breitman, co-founder of Tezos, to get an explanation from Manchester United soccer about why its new NFT collection uses designs and styles similar to his own.

Lucréce’s collection is much older than United’s, and its prices are higher, reaching around 21 ETH ($24,919) per NFT. In comparison, each of the Red Devils’ 7,777 NFTs cost around $40 and were quickly out of stock.

Lucréce hopes to reach an agreement with the Red Devils that will benefit both parties, as the resemblance of their artwork is so striking that some community members have speculated whether the artist worked on the Manchester United project.

Although the artist avoided directly accusing Manchester United of plagiarizing his works, he did post a comparison image on Twitter so readers could draw their own conclusions.

ClownVamp, a Twitter user, compared the two NFTs, noting that Lucréce’s was “one of Tezos’ most popular and oldest collections.”

According to the United collection’s terms and conditions, the NFTs were created by TRILITECH PLATFORM OÜ, “the for-profit arm of the Tezos foundation.” As a result, the Tezos Foundation has granted them permission to mint and sell the English football team’s digital collection.

Manchester United’s Devils collection is the club’s second digital collectible release. Each token has its own set of features and entitles the owner to exclusive airdrops, special AMAs, private competitions, and other “surprises.” This would be the next step in the team’s larger collaboration with Tezos.

Later today, Lucréce reported through his networks that, thanks to the community’s and Tezos’ support, he received a response from Manchester United with the intention of reaching an agreement, despite the fact that the club had not contacted him due to the holidays.

The correspondence between me and ManU has begun. I just had a productive call with them. Because everyone is still on vacation, this is probably the last update on this for a while.

Many of his followers praised the club’s response, praising the artist’s polite handling of the situation — which is not the usual way people handle controversies on Twitter.

Lucréce requested dinner with Cristiano Ronaldo as part of his demands. Of course, this was a joke, but the artist later stated that the subject “was not brought up. It was almost as if it had been avoided.” How will the situation play out? Will he be compensated financially, or will he be able to have his dream dinner with the world-famous CR7?