HISTORY OF PANINI FOOTBALL STICKERS IN SWITZERLAND

-map of Switzerland from Panini Football 80 album

We continue talking about the history of Panini stickers. This time, we are „travelling“ to a neighbourhood country of Panini - Switzerland. As we could learn in the story about history of Panini stickers, it all began in 1961 while the first breakthrough of Panini outside the Italian border was with the 1970 World Cup album. If we talk about Panini's albums in Switzerland, we should also mention his predecessors because there were sticker albums before Panini. The story of the arrival of Panini in Switzerland and the beginning of cooperation is very interesting. Here, we will talk about what was the first Panini album released in that country, when they started to release Swiss football albums, why are these albums interesting and what leaded to the end of cooperation and much, much more in the rest of our story.

The story goes back to 1930. At the time, not only in Switzerland, but in other countries, player stickers could be found in different products - chocolates, chewing gums, cigarettes... In that year we have album dedicated to Swiss national football team. That album had 12 stickers that you could get in chocolate. It was produced by a a company from Bern, in a total of 5 series.

In the mid 30s we have players from the collection “Ed. Laurens S. A.“ The albums of this publisher came out in a total of two series or seasons: 1934/35 and 1935/36. First one had 180 stickers, or player pictures, while the next one had 220. Player pictures from the first serie were also used in the second. The difference is only in the text in the back. Album from 1935/36 was the first full album since it contained all the clubs from the first league. You could find from 13 to 19 stickers per club.

After that, there were lot of albums made for various sports. Some were mix albums that included not only footballers but various other Swiss sportspersons such as bikers, skiers, hockey players, athletes, gymnasts, drivers... Those albums were published until 1960s and were released by various publishers.   

The next football album comes in the mid 40s. Player cards (pictures) could be found in coffee. On the back side of these pictures was written: “You can find this photo in the Sopra brand coffee packages. This package contains only the highest quality coffee.“ Various footballers without special numbering could be found in it. 

-first period of albums in Switzerland

The second half of the 50s and 60s bring albums called Schweizer Fussball album (Swiss football album). Player stickers came out with chewing gum (Bazooka Kaugummi and Sanagol Football-gum). The first two was published in season 1957/58 and 1958/59 seasons. The album included all 14 clubs that played at the time in the first league. Each of the club has an emblem, coach and 12 to 13 player stickers. The album also has a big picture of the Swiss football team. Next album published will also have second division clubs which means 24 clubs in total and 14 stickers for each of them (coach plus 13 players).

Except that second album also includes second division clubs there is another important difference. In the first album player names were written in the album (not on the stickers), while the stickers of the second album contain the names of the players (name written in the album but also on the stickers). Second album also have big pictures of Swiss A and B football teams. The cover of both albums is the same.

Album of the same publisher that we also have in 1964/65 season. That album has only first division clubs. Players featured on the stickers are „in action“ format, which means that it's their portrait in upper left corner.

After Bazook's, comes Sanagol. Sanagol produced albums for season 1967/68, as well as the season later (1968/69) They were made in same style as the previous ones (in action).

Along with these, there were also albums of other publishers. Besides football, Bazooka Kaugummi also released a few albums about first and second hockey league. 

-cover of Schweizer Fussball album from 1957/58 Bazooka

In 1962, an album dedicated to the World Cup comes out. It contains various pictures of the Swiss national team, but also the pictures of the others who participated in Chile the same year. The publisher is Juwo from Zurich. It was published in 4 volumes in a period from 1962 to 1964.

In the 70s there are Nimbus Verlag albums from Zurich. Nimbus is a Swiss version of a company that is more famous among collectors as FKS or as Spain FHER. They are known for the World cup albums and as well for albums of various domestic championships such as Spain, English, Belgian, Dutch... They appeared in Spain and in the late '60s on the international market. In Switzerland we have two of their albums under name Die wunderbare Welt der Fussballspieler Nationalliga A 71/72 and Fussballspieler in Aktion Nationalliga A 72/73. Each of the 14 first division clubs is presented with 16 stickers. The first one contained profile pictures of players while the second one as its name says in aktion.

-Nimbus albums from 71/72 and 72/73

Except the fact that the '70s were also marked by Panini company, which at that time began to come into various other European countries, including Switzerland.

The story of the arrival of Panini in Switzerland is interesting. Berto Grünenfelder was a businessman from Vira (a small town in Switzerland). His family business Grünenfelder SA was dealing with articles meant for kiosk shops.

During one vacation in the early '60s, in Abano near Venice in Italy, he spotted an opened pack that was lying on the ground, which made him curious. Grünenfelder went to the nearby news stand and he asked the seller about the pack he found. Seller told him that the pack contains football player stickers made by the Panini company from Modena. The stickers the pack contained were Calciatori stickers from 1963/64 season with all players from Serie A and B.

Grünenfelder decided to go to Modena on his way home. He stopped at Panini. After meeting Grünenfelder became the exclusive importer of Panini stickers for Ticino, the Italian speaking region in Switzerland. Grünenfelder wanted to expand his business to the rest of Switzerland. He wanted the same, to expand to Germany and France. Berto wanted show to Panini that he will provide them a great success with his selling skills. However, the Italians were skeptic. Still, Berto Grünenfelder sent them album translations in German and French, and his son Gino went to Italy to show the Panini family how to deal with export-related documents. Thanks to the Grünenfelder family, Panini begins with international business. The first international edition, as previously mentioned, is the 1970 World Cup which was a bingo.

They sold more stickers than all the previous albums they released. The company from Ticino also came up with idea to send by the post the remaining stickers to the collectors in order so they can fill their albums. Next step for Grünenfelder was to acquire rights and licenses from the Swiss Football Federation, which he did in 1979.

Of course, there were Panini albums in Switzerland before 1979. As we can conclude from this story, Panini appeared in Switzerland in the '60s. It was with Calciatori album in 1963/64, but only in Ticino region where the Italian language is spoken. In the '70s we have various Panini albums, not only football, but also the others like World Cup albums, Sport vedetts, Football clubs wappen, Montreal 76, Euro football 78 and 79...

-Panini albums

The question arises - why didn't Panini start earlier to publish Swiss football albums? We know that the italian company, with the help of Grünenfelder appeared in some parts of Switzerland in the '60s. In that country football is not the main sport . Main sport is the ice hockey. It means smaller market, but that means still some money for the company from Modena.

The first Panini album dedicated to Swiss football is Football 79. In total, we have 17 Panini albums featuring Swiss football clubs. They could be divided into two periods: those released in the '80s (including the first one from 1979) and those from the '90s, where we could include the last Panini album of the Swiss league from 2000/01.

Let's start with the first period. In the '80s. That means nine albums that came out, which were continuously coming out until 1987/88, except for the 1985/86 season. The first album has only 300 stickers. All Nationalliga A are presented in the album. A total of 20 stickers for each club.

Four of these twenty form a big team image, and the other stickers are emblem, coach and players. The other part of the album is made up of player drawings (caricatures) with football rules and trophy stickers: World Cup and EURO championship, Champions League...To the children and all other collectors Panini presented album on this way: “Here is a sticker album that will allow you to find out more about the players that you can see on the stadiums, whose names you can hear on the radio or on television, the ventures of whom you can read days after the matches - the fact that you want to know more about them shows that you are a football fan.“

In the next album, Panini included player stickers of players who play for the second league. It has, in total, 400 stickers. Most of the albums are designed in the same way. Stickers of the players of the first and second league and the stars from that time, or clubs that played in European competitions. Album from 1986/87 and 1987/88 seasons have only emblem and team stickers for the clubs of second league.

-Servette champion of Switzerland in 1978/79 season

As we stated, the 1985/86 season was not accompanied by a sticker album. What about Football 86 album? Grünenfelder SA company bought rights from a Swiss Football Federation which would later hand to Panini so they could produce Swiss Football albums. The popularity of football was not always big.

That's why we have seasons in which we don't have football albums. The lack of money and profit, as it's mentioned above, was and is also the main reason why the Swiss company has decided not to produce some of the Football serie albums. The same answer we can use on a question why Panini stopped releasing albums of the same serie from 1989 to 1993. In addition to the licence, the company was responsible for the acquisition of images of the players, while Panini was dealing with design of the album and stickers.

Panini returns to Switzerland in the 1993/94 season and releases the remaining eight albums. The last one is from 2000/01 season as I said before. They are designed in similar style and they have stickers of first and second league, and as a addition stickers of Switzerland national team players who played abroad. Football 94 and Football 95 has only team and emblem stickers for the second league clubs, while others also have 7 stickers more (two players on each) that is 14 players in total.

-cover of all Swiss Panini Football albums

Why Panini stopped to publish Switzerland Nationalliga A and B albums? Part of the answer was mentioned above, and that is the problem of smaller market which means less money for Panini. The second part of the answer is that, after financial problems and changes in ownership, Panini stopped to cooperate with Grünenfelder SA as a distributor and dealer. That's why Switzerland, unfortunately, has lost its Football albums. Grünenfelder SA still exist, but they sell other stuff, and the stickers only in small quantities.
Today, they deal with food, but the traces of the Panini era could be found everywhere, even if they are very well hidden. Thousands of stickers can be found in inconspicuous cabinets or in the indestructible gray office store. They could be found arranged by collection and year. Those from 60s and 70s turned yellow and the glue had lost its effect long time ago.
On the other side, there are build up complex boxes on the floor but also on shelves. We can see the WWF collections (animal albums), Pokemon and again albums of football themes: European championship, Champions League, Swiss football... In what extent is made work of collecting stickers you can only see when you enter the warehouse of Grünenfelder SA. Pallets, of whom is the warehouse full, are piled up all to the top. The warehouse, which is today full of sour cucumbers, pasta, gum and other foodstuffs used to feed the inhabitants of Ticino, once was used for the distribution of tons of Panini stickers.
For the World Cup 2002 they sold 20 million packets. If you made a road with every sold sticker you would reach Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator. Walking through the warehouse, to the top, just below the roof, you can find on packaged pallets of EURO 2004 stickers, which was also the last collection distributed by Ticino company.

-Leben und kleben lassen (Live and stick (stickers))

On the picture we can see office storage of Panini stickers in Grünenfelder SA. Triumph of Panini stickers in world of football we owe to a small family company from Ticino. 

After the Panini family sold the company, it came to the complicated cooperation. The new management has brought the company into financial problems. That leaded to the several changes in the management itself. Due to profit optimatization they also stopped with publishing several successful album collections. Because of all these problems and in a desire for even bigger success, the conditions started to deteriorate, which led to the break of cooperation, and new owners turned to smaller distributors. With that, Italian company lost good part of its profit.

„That's how is in business today.“- says Bert Grünenfelder grandsons, Dani and Marco, shrugging shoulders and with sad faces. „It's obvious that they wanted us out of business“- brothers say. All that began with a handshake from Berto and Panini family 50 years ago, and that suddenly meant nothing. The relationship between two families, Panini and Grünenfelder, and millions of football fans ended in an ugly way.

In the corner of the warehouse, we can also find the Panini stickers of the World Cup in Russia. However, it's a product that Grünenfelder SA, as a wholesaler, continues to provide on the request of their users. A product like any other, like pasta, baking oils or beer cans... The emotion that once existed ceased to exist.

-Panini World Cup 2002 and EURO 2004

During the writing this text I had the opportunity to speak with Marco, one of the grandsons of deceased Bert. Bert left this world about 10 years ago. If he was still alive, he would have been 105 years old today.

Marco recalls how at that time the Panini family listened opinions of all distributors about what they could sell. Then, every November/December, Panini had a list of 20 albums that were released early next year all around the world. His family would then choose 4-6 albums that went out in Switzerland. When the Panini family sold the company, they could not choose anymore, and they had to take what their new owner told them what to sell. Marco says this was much more then a job –first came the friendship between the two families.

His family was the first foreign client for Panini. Marco's father helped them with translation and export of the albums. The cooperation of the two families lasted for about 40 years without any contract. Just handshake. Such a contracts no longer exist today. If you could do something today, you have to sign contracts, but sooner or later, they come to an end. When he was a child, father would give him, his brother and sisters an album and box full of sticker packs. Their mission was to complete the album, check how many doubles were in the box, and if possible to finish the album with one box. With good mix, during production, the album could always be finished with just one box. For his father this was a job, of course, while for the kids, it was a game, and a pleasure.

Particularly interesting was that every new collection was like launching a new product. No matter how much you advertise it, in the end, only market determines whether to sell it or not. So every new collection was a risk, but also an opportunity, because you never know what the market will bring to you. Sometimes you expect big profit, but you don't get it, while on the other hand we have a completely opposite, where you don't have big expectation and in the end you make a great profit. This happened usually because Panini thought and still thinks in advance, they buy rights to create album that will feature a movie or a Disney cartoon before the movie or cartoon is on the market. If the movie turns out to be bad, the album sale will also be bad. There you can earn lot of money, but you can also lose if sales don't go well. Fortunately, the company was always in the profit at the end of the year.

-brothers Dani and Marco

I cannot get rid of the impression that, although Switzerland is a lesser football country then some others, Panini has still paid equal attention to albums as if it were about Italian Serie A. I don't own any of these albums, but I had the opportunity to look inside these albums in digital format. I really like those from 80s. Beautful albums where we can see great design inside of the album, main informations for each of the clubs, a great sticker design, attention dedicated to details... Under each player we can see info about him like the date of birth and nationality, the position he plays, the list of previous clubs... I really like the cover from 1987 album. 

On the cover we can see players of all the clubs from first league. Inside the album the poster was also included, with same picture. The picture was created during some form of humanitarian aid for kids suffering from cancer. It would be impossible to do this picture these days.

-great cover from Football 87 album

Swiss Football albums are part of the rare category. It's harder to find them on the internet, which makes them more expensive. The reason is that Switzerland is a smaller country with less population, compared to other football nations. So there are fewer copies of the album. Football then didn't have the same meaning as in Italy, England or Germany. And that brings us to a smaller market of both football albums and other collectables.

The Swiss football federation tried with Nationalliga albums, but big success didn't come. Two albums were released. One in 2006/07 season and other in 2011/12. Compared to Panini, these albums are very bad - worse design and quality.

However, Switzerland is still relevant to the world map of collectibles. Today, Switzerland is considered as one of Panini's most important markets. Every fifth home collects the World Cup stickers, much more then in other countries in the world. Stickers can be bought on every corner. Although there are no Nationalliga albums anymore, Switzerland is now, in the world of collectibles, known for its special album editions for World Cup and EUROs as the golden edition for the last World Cup in Russia.

I also had the opportunity to talk with one of the collectors of the Swiss Football albums. He especially remember collecting Football 87 stickers along with his school friends. However, he notes that after that none of his friends have collected those albums, which can surprise us, because in Switzerland are everybody crazy about world cup albums. World Cup albums were always covered by the media, and they are collected and discussed by all, from children to the grandparents. However, in the 1990s none of his friends were interested in Swiss Football albums.

-promotion of Switzerland version of album from 2018

Several words to conclude. I was planning to write a new story, after the history of Panini stickers in British football, and the history about Panini and about World Cup stickers.

I was planing to write about Belgium league, but that didn't go as I expected. At that moment I was close to give up, but I accidentally met one person who has all Panini Swiss Football albums.

After that I decided to write a story, but the story on the stickers in Switzerland. Personally, I didn't expect much from it when I started to write, I wasn't even sure where I will end up. It turned out that the Swiss company turned Panini company to international market. Because I don't give up so easily, and because of my persistence for the additional answers I wanted to get some questions answered, this story eventually lead me to the grandson of the person who started this whole story. In the end it turned out to be much more then the first idea, that is, from the regular story about history of stickers in Switzerland. I am very thankful to Marco for his kindness and help during writing this story.

Lecture: Marko Zrinjan