After more than 60 years, Panini's grip on the World Cup sticker album is gone. FIFA has signed a new deal with Topps — operating under the Fanatics Collectibles umbrella — to produce all official World Cup trading cards, stickers, and card games from 2031 onward.
The partnership that started in Mexico 1970, the first World Cup to feature an official sticker album, is finished.
What's actually changing
This isn't just a rebrand. FIFA is framing the switch as a genuine shift in the product itself. The headline feature of the new deal is a jersey patch program — actual pieces of player match shirts embedded into trading cards — including debut patches. It's the kind of premium collectible format that Topps and Fanatics have already pushed hard in American sports, and it signals that FIFA wants in on that high-end market.
"Fanatics are driving massive innovation in collectibles," said FIFA president Gianni Infantino, adding that the deal offers fans "a new, meaningful way to engage with their favorite teams and players." Whether that translates to something a ten-year-old with pocket money can still enjoy remains a fair question.
Panini, the Italian company that has been synonymous with World Cup sticker albums since before most football fans alive today were born, built a genuinely iconic product. The ritual of tearing open a pack, trading doubles in the playground, hunting down that one impossible sticker — it's cultural. Topps will inherit all of that goodwill and will need to earn it.
Italy takes another hit
There's an irony here that won't be lost on Italian football observers. A nation already watching from the outside after back-to-back World Cup absences now sees one of its most celebrated companies lose its defining contract to an American-owned operation. It's a symbolic blow, even if Panini's commercial future is far from over.
The deal kicks in with the 2031 World Cup. That's enough time for nostalgia to peak — and for collectors to decide whether jersey patches are worth the premium over a pack of stickers.
