Premier League and Fanatics Collectibles Announce Landmark Multi-Year Trading Card, Trading Card Games and Stickers Partnership
I have reproduced the press release and added a couple of comments.
The Premier League and Fanatics Collectibles have today announced a landmark multi-year trading-card partnership. Fanatics Collectibles will become the exclusive provider of Premier League trading cards, trading card games and stickers from June 2025.
Fans of the Premier League, the world’s most watched football league, will be able to collect trading cards and stickers from all 20 Premier League clubs, offering them the chance to connect with their favourite stars and clubs in the League.
Fanatics Collectibles, the trading card and collectibles division of the global digital sports platform Fanatics, currently has the league and sport licensing rights to the Bundesliga (since 2008), UEFA Club Competitions (since 2015), Major League Soccer (since 2012), Major League Baseball, UFC and Formula 1. Beyond that, its cornerstone brand Topps has a long history in the sport: it was a partner with the Premier League from 1994-2019. The Fanatics Commerce business also holds e-commerce and licensed apparel partnerships with The FA and a number of Premier League clubs.
Premier League Chief Commercial Officer, Will Brass said: “We are delighted to welcome Fanatics as the official sticker and trading card licensee of the Premier League from season 2025/26. They bring an outstanding track record and strong commitment to innovation, helping fans all over the world express their passion for the sports they love. Through this partnership, we will be able to create a truly memorable collectible experience for all.”
Blardy, blardy, blar... it all translates as Fanatics are giving them a mountain of cash and that's all they care about.
“We are incredibly excited to partner with the Premier League in this historic deal that we believe will put fans and collectors closer to the teams and players that they love,” said David Leiner, Fanatics Collectibles’ President of Trading Cards. “At Fanatics Collectibles, we know and love the game, and look forward to building an element of unique storytelling through the lens of collecting.”
Not impressed. Perhaps they'll start creating proper checklists for their collections.
The stickers and cards they've produced for Euro 2024 are some of the worst I have ever seen, if this is the future, the future is bleak, very bleak.
Although I wouldn’t want either Panini or Topps to have a monopoly over League & Competition albums; I’ve had no issues with Panini efforts on their Premier League albums.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that Panini’s Euro 2020 & World Cup 2022 album were below their usual standards; but this years Topps 2024 effort has failed to show any improvement.
Although Topps Euro 2024 sticker album has numerous issues, I don’t totally dislike it; but they will need to make major improvements for their Euro 2028 effort. I’m just hoping they will listen to their customers & not mess with an iconic album that we’ve grown up to love.
Totally agree with you Alan, Panini need to up their game as Fanatics are trying to have the monopoly on everything these days and the last World Cup collection was not great to be honest.
ReplyDeleteTopps have done okay with the Champions League collections and the current Euro 2024 collection once you overlook the shambolic numbering and the licensing issues is not too bad but could be better.
With the Premier League collection however it needs to be as good as if not better than what Panini have published and certainly numbered #1 - #636 etc as it currently is.
I do worry that Fanatics just won't care what people think though and will issue what they want regardless knowing there is a base that will still collect.
I am curious about this statement considering the recent years Match Attax and sticker collections. Are they thinking about the young kids that want to collect as well ? “Through this partnership, we will be able to create a truly memorable collectible experience for all.” Some shiny stickers for Champions League are difficult to get hold of. Just look at the stats on Laststicker. The same goes for the gold stickers for Euro24. Then you have the shields, energy and black edition for Match Attax
ReplyDeleteFanatics have absolutely no interest in what young collectors would like or prefer. They are only interested in making money. Now they've got the Premier League I think they'll move for Spain's LaLiga next. Topps are currently releasing new product almost every day, from the NOW cards, various small boxed sets and the larger releases that are released piecemeal, with new products coming every few weeks with exclusive cards.
DeleteOne thing Topps is overlooking about the Euro 24 sticker collection is that many people only collect the stickers for the World cup and Euros. They might have struggled a little bit with the two-three last ones, but are not used to over twenty rare gold ones....and they don`t care about the rare purple Luxenburg emblem they might pull
DeleteI completly agree with you, nothing more to declare, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteAs long as they use the term Football
ReplyDeleteShare your disappointment here Alan. Topps will likely overload the market with countless Premier League collection variants as they do the Champions League. Unlike with Panini it will potentially be impossible to complete any collection due to expensive to find chase cards and limited editions. Match Attax cards do not include a season date on them and checklists are patchy if they exist at all. The Premier League will always take the best financial offer, it is a shame they have not considered the quality and heritage of Panini products.
ReplyDeleteeuro 2024 is joke with topps panini alot bether
ReplyDeleteTo add my two pennies worth... I've been giving this a bit of thought!
ReplyDeleteThere's a huge difference between the way they collect in the US and the way we collect in the UK. We've been brought up on Panini Football sticker albums. One sticker per player, one season to finish it, an ordering service for the ones you can't get from swapping in the playground and the aim... to finish the album.
In America they seem to be more interested in the one card. Value is king. Therefore parallels or scarcity are valued above anything else. This shows in the few UK collection cards that sell in the US on eBay for example. They pay a premium for a one-off.
Fanatics seem (I'm basing this on the Euro collections) to be out of touch with the UK market at the moment and are coming close to alienating it all together. Match Attax isn't a bad card collection but Topps sticker albums have been steadily getting worse since Fanatics bought them. The Euro sticker book has nearly 1900 different stickers I think it is! Now you can ignore the parallels and just stick them in as if they're normal base stickers but that doesn't help with swapping and also leads to concerns you're losing a fortune by not selling something because the edge is a different colour!
I'd love Topps to decide that the sticker albums will be just that... one sticker per slot and about 650 stickers per album.
They'll make more profit in the UK, I guarantee it. They can release a US collection if they so desire (or even a second UK collection that does include parallels) but they're taking the hobby away from the completists and most of all families who do it for fun at the moment. The cards are a different story because they can be taken out of their slot in the folder and sold at any time, they're not one use.
Oh... I should also add that Panini are not innocent in this! Buying the right to baseball and basketball in the US were always going to put Fanatics on the offensive and however big Panini think they are... they're not even close to Fanatics.
ReplyDeleteMy last completed album was 2019 season, when I was bored with Lockdown and I didn’t know that was Topp’s last season before it went back to Panini, and now its gone full circle again. Im just getting back into collecting again to help my nephews as these days its so expensive and their friends never have many swaps. I dug out my Merlin 95,96,97 albums the other day… bring those back i say! And 25p a pack :-) thanks to the poster who mentioned Last Sticker.. I hadn’t heard of that and have just signed up also. Currently collecting Panini England Adrenalyn XL and England tournament stickers for the Euros… the Topps version was just awful to me with licensing and no Mbappe etc.
ReplyDeleteThose early Merlin albums were quality, and I see Topps are taking the credit for them even though those early Merlin albums were nothing to do with Topps. Euro 2024 products without Kylian Mbappé are just a joke.
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