While the non-attendance of fans at local football games is hardly national news, one football team in Sussex has been featured in newspapers across the UK after the design innovations of a local artist has earned the club’s poster campaign a cult following, with posters being featured in the Independent and the Sunday Times.

Lewes FC, the local football club of county town and liberal arts hub Lewes, has seen numbers rise up to over 500 fans per game since the classic posters were launched. Each poster features a mock-up of classic pieces of art, with everything from the Bayeux Tapestry to Rosie the Riveter receiving treatment, with added figures and club colours included alongside match times. For a recent match against the local Met Police team, marketing manager and designer Charile Dobres went for the iconic image of Banksy’s Kissing Policemen – the original of which lies just ten miles away in Brighton.

The people of Lewes are notoriously proud of the town and its achievements, and this technique has certainly paid off – Mr Dobres commented: “It’s all good fun but ultimately the reason I do it is to get more fans through the gates. We had over 500 for the recent Canvey Island game so hopefully it is working.”