Pannini, 2014. — 76 c.
Whilst introducing their newest football sticker album, Panini state on their website that UEFA Champions League 2013-2014 is "one of the most anticipated football events of the year", well move over UEFA, FIFA is in town! If Panini expected excitement to be high for their annual UCL sticker album, then the World Cup Brazil 2014 Sticker Album will surely eclipse it. Both in terms of hype, anticipation, sales and excitement.
Back in October 2013 when we had very little information on the Panini FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 Official Sticker Album, we drew up our own 'artists impressions' of what we thought it may look like. Seeing as the logos and branding for the 2014 tournament are soft blues and the logo itself uses the greens and yellows of the Brazilian flag, we think our efforts were not that far off! Back at that time we were hoping that the Panini World Cup Brazil 2014 Sticker Album might encorporate some of the new ideas from the Champions League 2014 sticker album, however, we don't see stickers containing two separate parts, or pages laid out according to the teams on-pitch formation. The album is very much in keeping with Panini's 'usual' approach to their World Cup football sticker collections.
The album opens on the inside cover with the Panini special sticker, the FIFA Fair Play sticker, a two-part Emblem and a two-part Mascot sticker. The facing pages shows the previous winners, group breakdowns and the shiny football sticker for the World Cup Trophy. The match ball sticker is hiding at the bottom of the page. The following double-spread leaves spaces for each of the stadia to be used in the 2014 tournament, with a two-part sticker for each. At this point the album jumps into the teams, working through the groups A-H. Brazil start things off, with their shiny badge, team photo and 5 player football stickers on the left hand page. The facing page shows a further 12 squad football stickers. Also included for each national team is a brief list of facts and figures in multiple languages and space to record the scores of the group stage. The football stickers themselves include details such as date of birth, height, weight and home club.
Interspersed through the football sticker album are vibrant double-spreads showing the host cities, tournament posters and action shots from the qualifiers. No stickers here, just pretty pictures to catch your eye. After a couple of pages of FIFA advertising at the end we see the final page detailing World Cup records.
The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is set up to be a cracker; the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil are, to a man, football nuts, so there can be no doubt that the tournament is to be held in an ideal location. Matches will be played across 12 difference cities, from Rio de Janeiro on the Atlantic coast, all the way to Manaus - the metropolis of the Amazon! It'll be a hot one, so don't hold out too much hope that the England footballers will do too well, as we all know they are a little prone to 'wilting'. But, 2014 could even be our year. Who knows.
