A&BC Chewing Gum (English)
Footballer - Blue backs

A&BC entered the era of scary hairstyles with a classy and popular set. The set was issued in 2 series: cards 1 to 131 (checklist 36) and 132 to 264 (checklist 182). Quality control was still not a priority for A&BC with cards 235, 262 and 264 never issued.

You received 4 cards for 2p.

Number in set: 262 (including the two variants of the checklist)
Gallery: Arsenal, Birmingham City, Burnley, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Derby County, Everton, Ipswich Town,
Leeds United, Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Norwich City,
Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Southampton, Stoke City, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United
Checklists: Series 1 (1-131), Series 2 (132-263), Team checklist
Special: Blue-back wrappers gallery
Special: A&BC Chewing Gum variants and error cards
Special: A&BC counter boxes gallery

Crinkle-cut photographs

Another A&BC set of black and white photographs, similar to the 1969/70 set but these tend to be action, rather than head, shots. Quality is again an issue, with the paper tending to age and therefore make this set appear older than they really are. These cards were issued with Series 2 of the Blue back set.

Number in set: 32
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist

A&BC Chewing Gum (Scottish)
Footballers - Red backs

This set was issued as two series, 1 to 90 and 91 to 178.

Number in set: 178
Gallery: Series 1, Series 2
Checklists: Series 1, Series 1 team, Series 2, Series 2 team

Series checklists: Series checklist, Series team checklist

 

Barratt & Co.
Football Stars

A set of 50 cigarette style cards issued by Barratt & Co Ltd, London, England. Printed in England. This was the final issue for Barratt's under their old name, with Bassett's name appearing on cards after this date.

Number in set: 50
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist

Esso
Top Team Collection

A strange though attractive set of small, thin metal disks, referred to as 'photo-discs' by Esso. The 22 'Soccer Superstars' could be mounted on a card by moistening the back of the photo-disc and pressing it firmly onto the ready-gummed circle on the collection card. The collection cards originally came with tissue paper in the middle to stop the pages of the card sticking to each other.

The photo-discs were presented in small sachets obtained each time you bought 3 gallons of petrol or 1 pint of Esso motor oil. When opened the sachets exposed pictures of players. The sachets and their pictures (stamps) have also become collectable (see below).

Number in set: 22
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists: N/A

Top Team Collection Packets

Printed inside the sachets were small photos of players. The backs of the sachets indicated that each sachet should contain two footballer stamps, but they were from a continuous roll which was cut according to the needs of the sachets. There are therefore many different combinations of players.

Number in set: 22
Gallery: Set gallery
Checklists: N/A

FKS Publishers
The Wonderful World of Soccer Stars 1973/74

The Wonderful World of Soccer Stars 1973/74 First Division and 1973 F.A. Cup Winners. A new landscape format, complete with club colours and a small, colour head shot. The centre pages of the album include fourteen stickers of Sunderland, commemorating their F.A. Cup win - these stickers are A thru N. The final pages of the album include 2 pictures each of Bobby and Jack Charlton, stickers O, P, Q and R. Album: Price 15p.

Number in set: 304
Packet: 10 stamps for 3p
Gallery: Arsenal, Birmingham City, Burnley, Chelsea, Coventry City, Derby County, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Leicester City, Liverpool Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Norwich City, QPR, Sheffield United, Southampton, Stoke City, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, F.A. Cup Winners (Sunderland)
Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist
Special: FKS album gallery

Football Star
All-Britain team - standup footballers

Football Star gave away sheets of six stand-up footballers with Issues 1 and 2 (15 and 22 September 1973). These figures may still be available as either individual cards or, more rarely, as an uncut sheet. The player cards each had Height, Weight, Age and First Cap headings on their backs, ready for you to fill in the details.

Many thanks to Martin and Alan who provided the images for these two sheets.

Number in set: 32
Galleries: N/A
Checklists: N/A

Super Strikers

Following on from the giveaway of the standup footballers Football Star printed a high colour page with two images of strikers in hexagons. The ideas was that you collected two of these each week for nine weeks, giving you 18 Super Strikers. There was a round poster which looks like a football with 18 spaces, so the idea was to stick your hexagons onto the poster.

I'm not sure whether these Super Strikers were issued with Issue 3 onwards, in which case they would have just managed to issue them all before the magazine folded after Issue 11.

Many thanks to Martin who provided the image below.

Number in set: 18
Galleries: N/A
Checklists: N/A

Goodies
World Cup

A set of 25 cigarette sized football cards presented by Goodies Limited, Greenbank, Bristol. The cards came in sweet cigarette packets, which also advertised that there was an album available for 10p.

Number in set: 25
Gallery: N/A
Checklists: N/A

IPC / Fleetway
My Magic Moment in Football - a Shoot booklet

Another in the series of booklets formed from the inside pages of Shoot magazine. The autograph stickers were back again, replacing the badges. The series began with the cover pages of the booklet on 22 September 1973.

Number in set: 111

Kellogg
International Soccer Tips

A small set of coloured drawings given away with Kellogg's Sugar Smacks. The poster displayed (kindly supplied by Toby) states that a great free football card special is included in every packet. Full-colour shots of eight top footballers - Jackie Charlton, Emlyn Hughes, Billy Bremner, Alan Ball, Derek Dougan, Gordon Banks, Wyn Davies and Tony Currie.

Interestingly the poster states that for just 25p and two Sugar Smacks packet tops you can get an album with more pictures, and space for your cards and autographs.


Number in set: 8
Gallery: N/A
Checklist: N/A
Panini
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

Primrose Confectionery
Football Funnies

Another set of 25 cards (paper really) which have a cartoon on the front and the related story on the back, given away with sweet cigarettes.

Number in set: 25
Gallery: N/A
Checklists: N/A

D. C. Thomson
The Victor Year of Football

A football calendar for 1974, presented with the Victor comic in its edition dated January 19, 1974.

Number in set: 1

Top Sellers
Football '74

A large set of cards featuring the First Division teams, team badges, plus some puzzle cards. The back of these cards states 'Printed in Italy by Panini 1973'.

The front of the album (cost 12p) states that these were 'self-adhesive collectors cards', though it is not clear to me where the adhesive is. The album was '© Published in England by Top Sellers Ltd. Printed in Finland'. No offence to the Finns but, honestly, the album binding is very poor and you will be lucky to find an album that hasn't come apart at the seams.

You could obtain individual cards to complete your collection by sending missing numbers to:
Top Sellers Ltd.
Dept. F74, Melton Road
Thurmaston, Leicester

Number in set: 420
Gallery: N/A
Checklists: Set checklist
Special: Puzzle cards master index

Ty-Phoo
Football Stars

The cards were able to be cut from the side of the tea packets. The quality of the cards therefore depends a lot on the person who cut them out, since this dictates how much of the packet was included, and how neat the borders will be. Some people cut them out with the accompanying text, while others cut around the picture only.You needed to collect 12 of the white footballs from the packets and post them to Typhoo stating which of the set of 24 you required.

Number in set: 24
Gallery: N/A
Checklists: Set checklist or Team checklist

Football Stars, Colour Pictures

If you collected any 12 of the tea packet footballs you could send them away to Typhoo Tea and obtain a 10" x 8" colour photo of your favourite player.

Number in set: 24