Over the years popular Italian
sticker company Panini had some curiosities or some mistakes and some other so-called
problems.
Back in the days we had
some player mistakes like putting the wrong picture. Using photoshop to create
stickers is normal even today. If they are missing a picture of some player
needed to be in the album they just cut his head and paste it on some other
player’s jersey.
Problem with license not
being given from some football federations. We all remember Iran stickers not
being printed for the 1998 WC edition. Then we have England and their FA. Today’s
story is about the Spanish national team and their football federation.
Because of the image
rights between the Italian company and the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
So for the 2002 WC album we have Spain national team players pictured with
their club jerseys instead of national team uniforms. Same thing appeared two
years before with the 2000 UEFA EURO Panini album.
So for example we have
this crazy team photo. Instead of the RFEF emblem we have a Spanish flag. In
2001 Panini published an album under the name “Superliga” for the 2001/02 La
Liga season. Panini used the same photos for this La Liga album and one for the
World Cup in 2002. Only difference is the background. All stickers used in the “Superliga”
album have the same green background. Player pictures for the WC album are
bigger and seem like they have an original background.
Here you can see all
Spanish player stickers from the 2002 WC album compared with ones from 2001/02
Panini La Liga album. Only two of them played outside Spain. Both Guardiola
and Mendieta played in Italy for Brescia and Lazio. If we compare their
stickers with the Calciatori Panini album from the 2001/02 season they are completely
different.
Spain FIFA World Cup 2002 stickers:
-Spanish flag instead of FF emblem
-crazy team photo with player's heads
English
Croatian
