World Cup fever is experienced internationally with a sporting event that attracts the attention of millions of people. This fervor is also reflected in the collection of stickers and albums, for which Panini has held the official FIFA license for decades.
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The 2026 World Cup album is the penultimate edition that Panini will publish for this football event. This is because FIFA announced last May that it signed a long-term licensing agreement with Fanatics for digital and physical collectibles. This includes cards and stickers, it added.
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This agreement will take effect from 2031, the international federation noted.
The publications
Panini has held the license to produce World Cup albums since the 1970 Mexico tournament, with about 50 pages covering the 16 teams that participated in that event.
Since then, there have been 15 World Cup editions where the company has produced stickers, cards, hardcover and softcover albums, among other products related to the biggest football tournament.
According to the media outlet Goal, for the 1978 Argentina World Cup edition, stickers of the cities and stadiums hosting the World Cup were released. In Italy 90, the tournament mascot was included in the stickers.
The Peruvian national team, in line with its World Cup participations, has also appeared in the 1970, 1978, 1982, and 2018 editions.
Also, the recent edition is the largest Panini has published, with 112 pages and 980 stickers. This aligns with the expansion of participant slots in the World Cup, a measure approved by the FIFA Council in 2017: from 32 teams in the Qatar 2022 tournament to about 48 nations in Mexico-United States-Canada 2026.
The Italian company was founded in 1961 by the Panini family in Modena, although they previously had a newspaper kiosk business.
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According to the media outlet El Cronista, in 1989 the company was sold to the owner of the Daily Mirror, Robert Maxwell, for 96 million pounds.
After that, the company has passed through the Bain, Gallo, Cuneo, and De Agostini consortiums, Marvel Entertainment Group, and the investment firm Fineldo.
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In a World Cup year, the album business moves around US$1.48 billion, and in non-tournament years, revenues reach US$600 million, reported the newspaper La Tercera.
Raúl Vallecillo, CEO of the Panini publishing house in Brazil, told Bloomberg Línea that the decision to change the licensee company “is properly that of the licensee.”
According to FIFA, from 2031 the product development will be handled by the Topps brand, owned by Fanatics. The agreement establishes the free distribution of collectibles by the American company for an amount exceeding US$150 million.
The Topps brand, FIFA highlighted, has been a pioneer in the use of patches for players who debuted in events such as the NBA, NFL, MLS, MLB, WWE, and F1.
See this post on InstagramA post shared by Gianni Infantino – FIFA President (@gianni_infantino)
