Panini has started the 2024 sticker wars with a thinly veiled attack on rivals Topps as it confirmed the launch of the new England 2024 stickers.
The legendary sticker seller announced a new sticker album featuring the England national team and four other top football nations set to appear at Euro 2024 – and unlike the Topps Euro 2024 stickers the Three Lions will be officially licensed with the correct kits.
Panini announced the new album with the message: “The ALL NEW England Official Sticker Collection Tournament Edition 2024, featuring France, Germany, Italy & Spain, all with 100% OFFICIAL KITS…..COMING SOON!!”
READ MORE: FIRST LOOK AT TOPPS EURO 2024 STICKERS AS RELEASE DATE CONFIRMED
While Panini lost the rights to the Euro 2024 license to rival Topps for the first time for a major tournament, it retained the rights of FIFA and four of the top European national teams and has launched an album featuring official kits.
It means sticker collectors will have two Euro 2024 albums to collect – the officially licensed Topps set which will not include real kits for five teams, or the unofficial ‘tournament’ set featuring five teams with full kits by Panini.
The new tournament edition sticker collection comes with an album and five packers of stickers in the starter pack. Multi-sets featuring 17 packets of stickers will be sold for £14.99, according to Panini.
The new Topps Euro 2024 stickers are set to be revealed in April after the final teams are confirmed via playoffs. The album will be officially licensed for the tournament but will not have proper kits for England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Instead, like the Match Attax Euro cards, the teams will wear more generic kits on the stickers in the official tournament album.
Fans are eagerly awaiting the new Topps album and the brand brought out the big guns when it hired legendary manager Jose Mourinho to help to pick the final squads to be included in the album when it arrives.
Panini and Topps are the two biggest sellers of football cards and stickers. Topps owns UEFA licensing and sells cards under the Match Attax, Prizm and Chrome brands. Panini sells the Premier League sticker album among others.
