Panini Official Fifa World Cup 2018 Russia Sticker Album

No World Cup is complete without the Panini sticker album and, as the excitement builds for the Fifa World Cup 2018 in Russia, fans around the world have already started collecting the stickers.

With many fans this year not making the trip to Russia because of fears of safety, even more will be watching on television, and what better companion that the completed sticker album.

The full World Cup 2018 draw is included on page two of the album (the outside and inside cover are not numbered); this gives all the matches and venues from the knock-out stage right through to the final on 15 July 2018 in Moscow. Venues for the group matches can be found on each country’s own pages. The inside front cover has sticker 00, which is the Panini logo, and sticker one the Fifa logo. The Panini web site has a section that lets you create your own World Cup 2018 sticker with a picture of your choice; this also goes on the inside front cover. Page one has another six stickers – 2 the World Cup trophy, 3-6 World Cup graphics and logos and 7 the official ball.

Stickers in the Fifa World Cup 2018 Album

The 80-page (plus four pages making up the inside and outside of the cover) album has room for 682 stickers, more than the 72-page World Cup 2010 and 80-page World Cup 2014 albums.

Pages two and three contain stickers eight to 19 and these illustrate the venues and the stadium. Pages four and five contain stickers 22 to 31 and these show the host cities. There are then four pages without stickers. Page six tells you where to buy tickets for the actual games, page seven advertises the web site where more stickers can be bought, pages eight and nine advertise the digital sticker album and the trading app.

The album then goes in the teams in more detail. Each team has two pages containing 20 stickers. One of these is a team photo and another is the logo. The other 18 are pictures of players. The two pages also show how each team qualified and gives the dates and venues of their group matches.

The teams take the book up to page 73 and sticker 671.

Pages 74 and 75 form a spread of pictures showing the World Cup qualifiers. Page 76 advertises the World Cup mascot – Zabivaka – Facebook page. Pages 78 and 79 finish off the sticker collection with numbers 672 to 681. Stickers 672 to 676 show multiple World Cup winners and 677 to 681 World Cup history makers; sticker 680 is Pele.

Page 80 has no stickers but tells the readers some World Cup records – did you know that Germany has reached the semi-final stage 13 times, more than any other team?

Cost of Collecting the Panini Stickers

A starter pack containing the album and 31 stickers is available for £3.99 (£1 dearer than last time) in the UK. However, many shops and newsagents will be giving the album plus six stickers away for free in the hope that this will encourage people to start collecting.

Each packet contains five stickers and costs 80p, 30p dearer than last time. A number of online retails are selling a box containing 100 packs for just under £80, and some are offering deals on bundles of packs.

A maths professor in the UK has estimated that filling the album will cost collectors £773.60, but Professor Paul Harper says that comes down to about £250 if ten friends work together and swap their duplicates..

Panini Missing Stickers

The inside of the back cover of the album explains how to order missing stickers over the internet or via post. Another option is to join one of the Facebook sticker trading groups