Panini already knows two months before. They have a secret; we have a secret.
I'm being told by their own team, 'He's a bit ugly. Can you please change his photo?'.
Our collectors like simplicity. They like Panini. They don't want to be hassled with problems.
Whether you're a young kid or a full-grown adult, there is nothing like the simple thrill of
tearing open a pack of stickers. Will I get the England shiny? Will I get Lionel Messi?
Mo Salah? Harry Kane? Will I get the last player I need to complete Brazil?
No, I will get Armando Cooper.
Right, one down, lots more to go. I'm Alex Reid, Digital Features
Editor at FourFourTwo. This is the moment when World Cup fever becomes real to me and
thousands of others around the globe. The moment when you've got a pack of Panini stickers
in your hand and you're ready to fill a new album with the world's best footballers.
What makes this simple thing so timelessly appealing? They get everyone - from children
in playgrounds to adults in offices; got, got, needing for a stack of a friend's swap.
There is only one way to find out. Let's talk to some serious collectors who put me to shame.
Hello.
Greg, nice to meet you.
And you, come in.
How did you first get involved in collecting stickers?
It was 1979. It was Panini's Football 79. I was very young, only five so it was all
down to a kindly brother who decided he was going to support my sticker collecting habit
for Football 79. It was one of their biggest albums ever. Now, fortunately, we've got the
cyber playground. We've got Twitter, people do it on Facebook and some you can do with
your friends and spark up friendships with people you never knew. You can even end up
swapping with celebrities, people like Ed Sheeran and Ed Balls, Josh Widdicombe - they
were all tweeting their swap lists for 2014. I'm sure there will be plenty doing the same in 2018.
Have you seen a resurgence of interest in recent years?
The real resurgence in Panini
stickers came in 2006 when the Germany World Cup came around. 2010, people carried on and
then 2014, there has never been anything like it around the world. I think it was the social
media that helped. Twitter was about in 2010 but not quite as big as it was in 2014 and
so a lot of people were doing their swaps on there, you had Facebook as well. It was
something fun that people were doing. When you finish it, it's a sense of achievement.
While you're doing it, it's hoping you can achieve you can finish it. As I say, I think
the most important thing is that people enjoy it.
It's not just the UK where the Panini
craze strikes. This is a global phenomenon. The Russia 2018 album is available in over
100 countries. That's more than treble the number of nations that actually qualified
for the World Cup itself. In particular, the continent of South America is home to some
of the most avid collectors. I don't think any of us realise when we started this, just
how popular Panini stickers are across all of South America. It's a huge thing in Columbia, isn't?
Yeah, massive. Not only Columbia but all of South America.
It is something we look forward to.
It's like a dream to us in South America.
Say a packet is 10p. The moment you
had 10p, there is only one thought in your head. Run to the shop and get a pack. That
was always the case.
Who was the really popular player that everyone wanted to get in 1986?
Definitely, Maradona. I was lucky enough to get him twice. I kept the other one but I
kind of misplaced it unfortunately!
How much would a Maradona in 1986 be able to command in the playground?
People would trade up to 10 stickers just for the one Maradona sticker.
Yeah, very popular.
We have a phrase in England when we're swapping stickers in the playground
which is 'Got, got, need', if you're going through the stickers and you've got, you've
got and you need. Is there a similar thing in Spanish?
It's exactly the same thing in translation: la tengo, la tengo, no la tengo.
Fernando, we see here that you've gone through
the trouble of getting these collections bound which is amazing, they do look incredible.
Why do they mean so much to you that you wanted to keep them in this way?
I've always wanted
to start something that could carry on within the family and I would always leave it with
my son, who is also passionate about football. Ever since he was little, he would hold the
sticker and I would scream that he has to put it inside the square. It was always the
idea to pass them on.
Okay, grown-ups like myself, Greg and Fernando love collecting
stickers but in a digital age of smart phones and hundreds of hours of live football every
single week, why do kids still get bitten by the sticker collecting bug? It's time to
talk to a true professional.
Hi Alex, come on in.
Hi Billy, how you doing?
Thanks for inviting me over.
No problem.
So Billy, you're a big fan of Panini like myself. Big fan of stickers.
I've finished two albums!
Pretty impressive. So, I know you've got the picture
of Neymar up there on the wall. Are you particularly excited when you got him?
Yeah because he's my favourite player.
It's awesome you've completed both of these albums. Let's sit down and take
a look through them.
What do you enjoy about collecting stickers? What do you think is
fun about it?
Getting them from the shops and seeing new ones or old ones you have.
Sticking them down takes a while if you want to get it perfectly in the box.
Have you got the technique down, Billy?
These look pretty good to me.
Yeah, some of them my dad did.
This is how old I am. This is the first album I had. A World Cup album, which is Italia 90.
Gosh.
I know, I didn't get anywhere near to completing it. I didn't do anywhere near
as good as you.
Wow, you didn't complete many.
I know, I didn't do very well at all did I?
Look at that, Italy is dreadful. Right, that's how far I got with England. Not too bad. No,
you're not impressed at all, are you? Tell me about you collecting the stickers with
your dad. Do the two of you just sit down and open some stickers together and start
sticking them in?
Yeah. On the weekends or after school. I used to go out with my grandpa
to the shops and then I used to buy two Panini packets and a bubblegum.
I'm really impressed you've completed 2014 and 2016 -
that's amazing work so I think it's pretty important that
we get started on Russia 2018.
Thank you!
Javier Hernandez.
You got it, there you go.
Come on... silence.
No!
I think that's absolute perfect.
Spot on, the first sticker.
Billy, we've given you a bit of a start here.
Good luck completing your album.
Thanks!
High-five?
The fun of swapping and collecting stickers crosses generations and countries.
Where did it all begin?
How did this simple collectable grow to become so iconic?
What's kept Panini at the top of the pile?
There is only one way to find out.
Head to Panini headquarters in Italy to talk to group publishing director
and self-confessed collector Fabrizio Melegari.
How many hours, how much work,
has gone into creating what we've seen before us right now?
Well first of all, because you've seen it now we're forced to kill you.
I will die a happy man!
The minute the World Cup winning team lift the trophy and celebrate the victory.
That is the minute we start working on the following World Cup.
The company started in 1961.
The real founder was Mr. Giuseppe Panini who very quickly called his family to work with him.
This is the first Panini album.
The stickers were very simple.
They were all created, starting
from black and white pictures which were mechanically coloured in pre-press. This one which I'm
showing you is Mr. Bruno Bolchi. This is the first sticker produced by Panini.
Fabrizio, have there ever been any turning points in the history of Panini?
Somewhere it's been a success but it could have gone the other way?
Were there any moments where there was a fork in the road?
1970, the first World Cup. For the sake of being able to distribute
it everywhere, for the first time, it appeared multi-language caption. Strategically, that
was the key point to go like that all over the world. And that was the turning point
because Mexico 70 rented to Panini the possibility to be international.
I'm a huge fan and I
know a lot of people that are but do you get any famous people or footballers themselves
who have revealed to you that they are collectors? Or were collectors in their childhood?
Well, I think the first which comes to my mind is Gianluigi Buffon, the international football
player who is a big fan of ours. He's a big collector and he's the first one I would think of.
He's not a bad goalkeeper. He's no Joe Hart but...
I see what you mean.
In the frenzy of opening a new pack of stickers and carefully placing them in our album, we don't consider
how much work goes into creating something which seems so simple. How do you maintain
the rights of 32 governing bodies? How do Panini insure the World Cup squads are as
accurate as humanly possible in advance? And who will help me finish my Italia 90 album?
We headed to Modeana, home of Ferrari, Lamborghini, balsamic vinegar and of course, the place
where Panini stickers are actually created.
It's not just us collectors who have to be kept happy however.
There is the footballers and their federations too. It's a mammoth
planning task and brings some unique challenges.
What I receive are incredible requests so
changes with respect to pictures that we are willing to use, for incredible reasons.
"The hair isn't perfect for example; it was raining so the player I'm using the picture of is
wet; the expression isn't perfect; I'm being told by their own team that it's a bit ugly,
can you please change his photo?
Have you ever had any situations in the past where
you've caused any problems with the squad selection - the players you've left in or left out?
I remember very well in 2014. When the German journalists arrived in Modena and
see the pages of the new album, they see that Mario Gomez was not in the collection.
'Well, guys, you're completely crazy. Mario Gomez is one of the most important players.'
One week before the World Cup, the coach of Germany released the team and Mario Gomez didn't make
the team. The sounds of the titles in Germany completely changed. 'Panini already knows,
two months before - they have a secret source.' Yes, we have a secret. We say here in Italy
that football is the most important thing of the less important things.
Now it's time
to head to where the action really happens - the factory where thousands of stickers
are printed, cut, mixed and packeted every single day.
This is the heart of our production department. Here, we create the stickers.
This is me in the factory with Production Manager Simona Spiaggia.
She is explaining how the whole system works and trying to insure that I don't
leave with 260 packets of stickers inside my own pockets. The packaging machines use
the same original design created by Alberto Panini in the 1960s, that can't be found anywhere outside of a
Panini factory. However, what truly amazes me is that you never get a swap or even two
footballers from the same national team in the same packet of Panini stickers.
Simona explained to me that this is because each sheet of stickers is mixed, both before and
after the individual stickers are cut which ensures a fair mix. The exact science of it
totally went over my simple brain but it's clearly a well oiled machine with razor sharp precision.
All of that work for this. But this is something very special.
Even though Antonio Allegra and Giogrio Aravecchia have been with Panini for a combined three decades, they
still understand better than anyone why we still get that unmistakable buzz when we rip
open a packet of stickers.
We think Panini is going as strong these days as it was 50
years ago because, in reality, in a packet of stickers there's a series of uniquely magical
sensations. I'll try to explain myself better. Imagine a little kid who has a packet of stickers
in his hand. It's something physical, something mysterious. Because I don't know what's inside
- I have to discover... And to discover, I open it, and I rip it - it's almost a liberating
gesture. The smell of the stickers. The smell of the stickers is something we all have in
our heads. It gives you a special feeling. And then I find out if I've won or if I've
lost, if I've found my favourite player. And so, I say, "Ah, this one I didn't have. This
one I've found. This one I can keep with me all the time. Or I can include it in my album
with my other heroes." Because after all, these are my heroes that I can collect. We
believe that you can't get this combination of feelings from a smartphone or a tablet
- they're typical of a psychical product. And besides, we're talking in this case about
football, the World Cup, and so it's something that's a mass phenomenon in any case, a phenomenon
you can share, even on a global level.
And that's why we think Panini stickers are more alive today than ever.
The real magic of Panini is to keep simple a product which is very difficult to create.
It's difficult to make something that in the end is so simple, so wonderfully easy.
Yes. You need to keep it simple because our collectors like simplicity.
They like Panini. They don't want to be hassled with problems.
Now we come to the heart of the matter.
This entire trip to Italy is just an excuse for me to finish my Italia 90 album
and stop nine year-old kids like Billy laughing at me in the street. It's time to do what
every England midfielder was looking to do when they had the ball during the 1990 World
Cup - find Gary Lineker.
How far back does your achieve of stickers go back?
We start our availability from 1964/1965. We have special shuttles, we call them shuttles because they
are automatic machines that can contain millions of stickers.
You have helped me today by finding me - this is very precious.
I was actually very excited when you showed this to me.
That is an actual Gary Lineker sticker.
All of the stickers you need to find are original.
Our company never re-prints.
We might be 28 years late, but Links is finally in there alongside his strike partner, Peter Beardsley.
While timeless joy a major part of Panini's appeal, the company still needs to change with the times.
Understandably, it's embracing new media from games to digital swapping.
As a new media, we need to give some value added
to these ways of naturally collecting. For example, we use the technique such as augmented
reality rather than other techniques to give additional content to the traditional stickers.
We created an app, called Panini Collectors where kids can track the completion of their
collection. They can scan in the stickers, creating the swapping list, swap the lists
online, on social networks and have fun because there will be games based on the stickers collected.
From the UK to the Italy to South America, via the unlikely paring of famous
collectors such as Ed Sheeran and Gianluigi Buffon, it's clear the joy of collection stickers
is a universal appeal that crosses boundaries. To me, it's a bit like vinyl records.
Something that should belong
to another era but it's vintage appeal actually means it's become more popular than ever.
That's why I think people will always be collecting Panini. Now, good luck completing your own
Russia 2018 album.
Got, got, got, need.