HISTORY OF PANINI STICKERS IN BRITISH DOMESTIC FOOTBALL

-Panini Football 1979 league map

Here on this post you could read a little story about Panini stickers in British football. British, because some of those albums also covered Scotland league. But I will mostly talk about stickers in England football. I will also say few words about stickers before Panini and today's albums produced by Topps.

First I will say some words about today's „Topps“ albums dedecated to England's Premier League. If you ask any collector from England all of them will say you one word: disappointment. If we look for example in last edition of album (2016/17) it looks like they produced an album for as little cost as possible. Last season was 25 years of Premier League. It was great opportunity to make something about history of Premier League. But Topps made only 4 pages about most appearances and top scorers. They also put sticker of Sadio Mane as a fastes hattrick scorer in PL history. He did it while he was in Southampton but they put his sticker in Liverpool jersey. They should have done more for 25 years. Every team in album is presented with club logo, two team stickers, one shiny sticker for a star player and only 12 player stickers for each team. It is big disappointment if we look at today's club squads. So you miss lot of famous players in the album.

Words from one collector from England: „Topps have done nothing to appeal to me as a collector and a football fan. Having collected Panini's French Ligue, Italian Calcio, and Spanish La Liga football albums, they have done so much more just by the look of the album, and also the level of detail.“

-Topps Merlin's Premier League 2016/17 album cover

-Example of Chelsea from 2016/17 Topps album

Before it was different...

When we start talking about stickers in England football first we have to start talking about FKS publisher.  Albums were named „The Wonderful World of Soccer Stars“ or later „Soccer Stars“. FKS had success because their album was leader at that time in England. FKS was the UK arm of a Spanish company called Fher. Let's say local publisher and it was hard for Panini to take their place. FKS also produced WC albums. FKS produced not stickers but pictures (some pople call them „stamps“) and you had to use your own glue. But you glue only top of that stamp because biography of the player is written on the other side. 

-Some covers of FKS albums

-Example of FKS sticker "stamp"

Panini first appeared in England football in season 1971/72. But they only printed stickers for „Top Sellers“. They did that until 1977/78. It was just matter of time when Panini will become first company for stickers in England football. 

-Example of Panini "Top Sellers"

First Panini album in England was for 1970 World Cup and if we compare Panini and FKS World cup albums it is easy to see that Panini produced much better albums. FKS had only one page for each country while Panini had two. Panini also had introduction with stadium and town stickers. Panini albums were in much better quality, they were more colorful. FKS albums looks very poor. Those are several main reasons why Panini overtooked FKS in England football.

Panini also produced self-adhesive stickers rather than the picture stamps of FKS, which needed gluing in. FKS did then produce self-adhesive stickers the following season but such was the success of Panini's Football 78 that they were now the 'go-to' album.

Panini also managed to secure deals with the English and Scottish Football Leagues and Professional Footballers' Association's...which gave them access to all the latest kit branding whereas most rival albums used images from the previous season around that time.

They also gave the album away free with the most popular UK football magazine at the time - Shoot! - and their distribution was second to none. Finally, they also introduced the shiny/foil club badges which became legendary when it came to doing swaps because of their aesthetic appeal.

First Panini album dedicated to England first league (also Scotland) was in 1977/78 season (Panini Football 78). It came out in January 1978. Since then Panini was main publisher in England football till 1992/93. Almost all of those albums also had included Scotland First Division. In album „Football 1980“ they also produced player stickers for 2nd division of England football.

Panini almost never disappoint with their albums so it was the same with this albums. Just look at the design of the pages where you have history of the club, info about every player... 

Which is the best Panini UK albums? Football 78 had quite a few flaws but from Football 79 through the 1980s the albums were near to perfection because all the right players were featured in all the right kits. For me the best albums are Football 79 because of the silk badges they used as a one-off experiment and Football 83 because it was the only UK Panini album which used full-length shots, thus getting in the whole kits as well. (Greg Lansdowne)

UK Football league album covers:

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


-Panini UK Football packets

England First Division winners trough Panini Football albums:

1977/78: Nottingham Forest


1978/79: Liverpool


1979/80: Liverpool


1980/81: Aston Villa


1981/82: Liverpool


1982/83: Liverpool


1983/84: Liverpool


1984/85: Everton 


1985/86: Liverpool


1986/87: Everton


1987/88: Liverpool


1988/89: Arsenal


1989/90: Liverpool


1990/91: Arsenal


1991/92: Leeds United


1992/93: Manchester United

Why did Panini stop making UK domestic albums? The Premier League didn't have an official album for its first season in 1992-93 (Panini Football 93 wasn't official album). When they looked for a company to produce one for 1993-94 they approached Merlin because someone high up at the Premier League/Football Association (David Dein) was friends with one of the major shareholders at Merlin (Patricia Kluge). Merlin convinced the Premier League that they were up to the task and they proved to be up to it. 25 years later Merlin (now owned by Topps) are still doing the Premier League sticker album although the Match Attax cards are far more popular these days. 

These are not the only albums that Panini produced in UK. In 1990 Panini published album dedecated to the legendary players of England football. Album was named "The All-Time Greats 1920-1990". There were albums named "Super Players". In albums were presented players from England Premier League clubs. They also published several albums dedecated to second division of England football (Championship). Album in 1996 dedecated to England national team...

When we are talking about Scotland league albums Panini was official publisher in 1991/92 and from 1994/95 to 2011/12.

- Panini The All-Time Greats 1920-1990

 

- Panini Super Players 1996 and 1998

Six albums dedacated to second division of England football:

 

 

 

I will end this with words from one collector from England: "I really hope that one day Topps finally lose the license for the PL and their albums. Panini do a far greater job and they seriously need to do all they can to regain the licence for the PL. I and many others would love this, and looking back at the English Football League albums from 1978 to the early 1990's where not only were the albums of the teams, but the level of detail was fantastic in stadiums, matchday programmes, players, history, stats about each player, pretty much like what Panini Calciatori are doing today. Now as an avid collector of the PL album (and I will continue collecting this), I am sure that Panini would love to grace the PL sticker albums and show off what they have been doing so well for decades. Maybe I am just being nostalgic having collected stickers for 40 years, but maybe one day I will enjoy an album like I used to from years gone by." 

LITTLE UPDATE (FEBRUARY 2021): In 2019 not only stickers but all Premier League fans were pleased with the news that Panini is coming back to English Premier League. Since the quality of the Topps albums were going down it was only a matter of time when they will came back. This is Panini's second era of stickers and albums. First one started in late 70s and finished in early 90s. Those albums were dedicated to English and Scottish leagues. Second Panini era in British football will only have English Premier League clubs. Panini's Football 2020 (season 2019/20) is the first official Panini's Premier League album. If we compare these new albums to Topps ones- the difference is great. Not only about quality of the album and stickers but also about design, promotion of the collection. We have much more stickers for each club etc. This brought back many collectors who didn't collected stickers for many years or collected Panini league albums in their first era. All in all a great come back from Panini.

   

Sources of some pictures: cards.littleoak.com.au/index.html

cartophilic-info-exch.blogspot.hr

Thanks for helping me with text:
Greg Lansdowne (autor of the book: Stuck on you), my friends Chris and Jamie.