| Panini Panini are probably the greatest modern football card producer, though they only begin to feature in the latter stages of the period covered by this website. They began in Italy in 1961/62 producing their now-famous Calciatori collection. In 1988 the company was sold to the Maxwell Group, who didn't handle it too well, so it returned to Italian hands in 1992 - thank goodness! This Italian company is still going strong today (see www.panini.co.uk), covering many topics in addition to football. This website only covers their cards from 1965/66 to 1979/80. I'm not the world's greatest expert on Panini, so if you know more than I please feel free to email me. |
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| 1969/70 | ||||||||||
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Mexico 1970. The Mexico 1970 production marked
Panini's first international edition, and therefore their entry into the
English football card market. This is a very high quality set of cards in
an excellent album. It is very collectable, and therefore both album and
cards fetch high prices. Subsequent to this production Panini produced cards
for the U.K. market under the name 'Top Sellers', until 1977 when they returned
as Panini. See the separate
Top Sellers page for
details. This set comprises a combination of stickers and cards. The stickers are self-adhesive, with a peel-off back. The cards are designed to be glued into the album. If you collect the stickers it is therefore ideal to collect them with their backing paper. If you collect the cards it is best to collect them in 'never been stuck in an album' condition. The album and cards were printed in Italy by Edizioni Panini, Modena. They were distributed in England by Thorpe and Porter (Sales) Limited, Melton Road, Thurmaston, Leicester. The set comprises the following (with galleries available via each link):
Number in set: 288 (42 stickers, 242 cards) Checklists: Set checklist or Team checklist From Marcello, Florence: In Italy Panini cards were sold in the sixties and early seventies in small packets containing four cards each at the cost of 10 lire. In each packet one card have the word VALIDA or BISVALIDA printed on the back. The VALIDA cards were one-point premium cards and BISVALIDA two-points (BIS in Latin meaning two). Italian boys sent to Panini all the VALIDA and BISVALIDA cards collected and received very desirable items not always available at cheap prices in shops like leather footballs, shirts of the favourite teams (in wool!), football shoes and so on. To give you an idea, to have a leather football a boy had to collect and send to Panini 300 VALIDA cards or 150 BISVALIDA, if memory serves me well. The items that you can required from Panini in exchange for VALIDA cards were far less important than the collection itself, and so you sent to Panini only your 'doubles'. I've never sent a rare Gordon Banks, even with VALIDA printed on back, to have a shirt! In other words, Italian boys sent to Panini only their doubles and the most common VALIDA and BISVALIDA cards from his collection, and not the one with a 'rare' footballer on front. I remember that in Mexico 70 Italian collection the most rare cards were the ones with Gordon Banks, Martin Peters, Sepp Maier and the Brazil 1958 Cup Winner. |
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| 1973/74 | ||||||||||
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Műnchen 74
World Cup. A rare set of stickers, again produced for the international
market. The sticker backs have text in six languages, with the English version
being 'Ask your retailer the album for this collection of picture cards'.
Huh? I think we know what it means. Number in set: 400 Gallery: N/A Checklists: N/A |
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| 1976/77 | ||||||||||
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Euro Football 77. Another 'international'
Panini collection which was available in the U.K. through the distributors, Minicards Ltd. An album was available for the stickers. Some copies of the
album were distributed for free through the Shoot/Goal magazine.
The introduction to the album states 'Hallo
Friends! Let me say it feels great to tell you that fantastic picture stickers,
made by Edizioni Panini, the largest producer in the world, which are already
well-known and enjoyed by most of the children in Europe are now available
to all British children as well'. Are all Italian sentences this long? Number in set: 288 Gallery: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Germany, England, Spain, France, Greece, Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Cyprus, Hungary, Malta, Holland, Norway, N. Ireland, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Scotland, USSR, Finland, Sweden, Turkey and Wales Checklists: N/A |
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| 1977/78 | ||||||||||
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Euro Football 78. Another 'international'
collection which was available in the U.K. Number in set: 256 Gallery: N/A Checklists: N/A |
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Football 78.The first ever
Panini-production (not Top Sellers) designed solely for the U.K. market.
In an introduction to the album David Gregory, Editor of Shoot Magazine
states '...this album... ranks as the latest publication to join the elite
amongst football publications'. The album states that information in the
album was 'compiled up to date on 20 September 1977'.The collection was actually distributed by Minicards
Ltd, of Regina House, Queen Street, London, as sole U.K. and Eire distributors
of Figurine Panini. The self-adhesive stickers came in packets costing 5p each. The album was printed in Italy. Number in set: 525 Gallery: N/A Checklists: N/A |
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| 1978/79 | ||||||||||
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Argentina 78. The album cover is shown. Number in set: 400 Gallery: N/A Checklists: N/A |
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Euro Football 79. Number in set: 400 Gallery: N/A Checklists: N/A |
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Football 79. The second Panini
production for the U.K. and Eire. Somehow Panini had managed to do a deal
with the Football League, and proudly announced in the album that the collection
was 'the only one to be approved by the Football League'. The album states
that information in the album was 'compiled up to date on 30 September 1978'.The collection was again distributed by Minicards
Ltd, of Regina House, Queen Street, London, as sole U.K. and Eire distributors
of Figurine Panini. The self-adhesive stickers came in packets costing 5p
each. The album was printed in Italy. Number in set: 594 Gallery: N/A Checklists: N/A |
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| 1979/80 | ||||||||||
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Football 80. Number in set: 582 Gallery: N/A Checklists: N/A |
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asserted to reside with its creator, Nigel Mercer.