UEFA Champions League Sticker Album 25/26

[Pillman]

 

[alekmoloko]

Looks like a fake.
Even like a concept.
Especially with "concept only".
I wrote about it in topic dedicated to previous collection.

 

[Detective]

This is a page from a new football magazine that was first published a week ago. The first issue (October 17, 2025) included two free Match Attax packs. This screenshot reveals that the next issue, dated December 5, 2025, will include a free album and sticker pack from the Champions League 25-26 collection. It's therefore possible that this year's collection will be released between the end of November and the beginning of December.

 

[Peakster]

When the first phase of the competition will be over.

 

[Detective]

When the first phase of the competition will be over.

Dude, this is one of the many reasons I hope Panini can get the licenses back to produce this album as soon as possible. I really miss the Champions album when it came out the second week of October with Panini.

 

[alekmoloko]

I hope Panini can get the licenses back to produce this album as soon as possible.

Only if UEFA split card license and sticker license.)))
Otherways, Topps never give up on UCC cards license.

 

[Peakster]

No, I agree - they'll never give up those licences - they are a huge company - they can afford them.

I also think that Panini will hang on to what they have left as well.

Can you imagine how s**t a Topps World Cup collection would be.

 

[alekmoloko]

No, I agree - they'll never give up those licences - they are a huge company - they can afford them.

I also think that Panini will hang on to what they have left as well.

Can you imagine how s**t a Topps World Cup collection would be.

I couldn't declare so easy that Topps WC collection will be poor.
I can compare CWC 2025 and EURO 2024 collections, and both albums not impress me. As well as sticker design.
Also I can compare design of FIFA 365 2024 album, and UCL 24/25. And for me album design from Topps is much much better. Sticker design for both collections are on "average" level.
Maybe in a month I can compare FIFA 365 2025 and UCL 25/26 albums. But I already can see that album design from Panini is 6-7 out of 10. And only "Elite" stickers looks good. Other stickers same as an album - 6-7 out of 10.
Plus, in a few months we will see WC 26. And I'm already not expect anything exceptional from this collection.

I mean, in general for Topps will be not so hard to one-up design from Panini. At least for the album itself.

 

[Peakster]

The Topps Euro 24 sticker album was the worst sticker collection in living memory - I have nothing positive to say about it.

I have high hopes for the new Panini EFL collection - I hope I am not going to be disappointed.

 

[alekmoloko]

The Topps Euro 24 sticker album was the worst sticker collection in living memory - I have nothing positive to say about it.

I have high hopes for the new Panini EFL collection - I hope I am not going to be disappointed.

Glad that you don't collect CWC 2025 from Panini.)))
In my opinion, design is similar to albums that we have 20 years ago.

 

[Peakster]

I didn't collect the CWC sticker set - but I recently bought a virtually complete set of the Adrenalyn XL CWC cards on ebay for about £20.

That's about what they are worth - they are not great cards.

You have to admit that standards have dropped for the Topps ECL sticker sets in the last two years though - apart from being a harder set to collect the stickers in particular are not very good quality now - and the album for the last one was particularly poor. The borders for some of the teams were almost invisible and the rest didn't quite match the sticker size.

The album for the recent Womens Euros was dreadful - mine fell apart pretty much immediately and the pages were really thin.

 

[alekmoloko]

You have to admit that standards have dropped for the Topps ECL sticker sets in the last two years though - apart from being a harder set to collect the stickers in particular are not very good quality now - and the album for the last one was particularly poor. The borders for some of the teams were almost invisible and the rest didn't quite match the sticker size.

Only one thing that I can admit: Topps sticker quality was not perfect all the time. And yes, now they become more thiner from year to year.
Albums paper quality is same as in Panini albums. Waving pages. Central pages always fall off.
But album design is good. Sometimes even very good.
Border to stick the sticker in Topps albums always different from season to season. But after one sticker I already understand how to stick it properly. And if they overlap the border it's still not a huge problem for me.

At the same time Panini perform good work only with Calcatori and EPL. All the FIFA 365, CWC25, TopClass, WorlsClass, WC 22, EURO 2020 (21) and other national championship albums were not so good as everyone expect.
Sticker quality is "medium". Little bit better than Topps. But still not so good as it was 10-15 years ago.

So I just can't understand why everyone so like Panini, if they mostly have same quality as Topps.
In some categories little bit better, in some categories little bit worse. But on average they are almost equal.

But let's see newest EPL and UCL sticker collections, and compare with Calcatori and WC. I think that's the best way to see who is better.

 

[Peakster]

Panini stickers are of a much higher quality generally. They are much more robust.

 

[alekmoloko]

They are much more robust.

Maybe.
I can't argue with that, because I buy stickers to stick it in the album, not to store them.
So I can't tell which one is more robust.
But I know that some collectors not stick stickers into album, and store them separately. So maybe in this case Panini is also better.

At the same time I agreed in previous message, that Topps stickers more thiner.
But the price per sticker is cheaper.

 

[Peakster]

I always stick mine in too. Most sticker sets are never going to be worth very much.

Not with trade and cigarette cards though - they are worth much more if you keep the cards and albums separate.

 

[GStephens]

Panini has a richer history and therefore a better reputation. There is no doubt they dine off that reputation a lot lately, the quality is usually less and the designs are unimaginative.

A lot of collectors would have grown up with the Panini albums for their national leagues and then both the World Cup and Euros. In South America they have the Copa America sets always too, I know there are other companies but Panini is the behemoth. Therefore historically a lot of collectors recognise the Panini brand more and prefer it. Topps becomes the new thing in town (even though the company is not at all new) and so people dislike it because it's different. It's similar to how you start to think more and more modern music is poor as you grow older (I mean but it really is bad now right? )

I actually grew up with the Merlin Premier League albums. I absolutely loved them, the designs were very good. I would call them "honest" albums, you can see football pitch backgrounds etc to a lot of the stickers in the first few albums that give authenticity. Now everything is just a cheap lazy photoshop copy and paste onto the same background. Half the time Panini just paste heads onto the same shoulders, look at their England 2024 album for example.

Adrenalyn and Match Attax were both awful inventions and most cards in every one of those sets are terrible. They are uninspiring on increasingly lower quality paper/card with the guise of being for kids with the "game" element but have so many limited editions/momentum/black edge/shields or whatever chase set they want to call it. No kid could ever complete those, despite the product clearly being aimed at kids. Both companies are equally guilty of this, they seem to compete with each other every year to see which can do the next most absurd thing.

I don't collect the Topps Champions League stickers but I thought the design for last year was ok and the quality appeared to be similar to Panini's Premier League sets from what I heard. I hate the parallels but Panini do that too. I hate the Match Attax sets with a passion, as I do most Adrenalyn ones. However, I would say a lot of the Match Attax designs edge Adrenalyn (when they have the proper licenses of course) and their hobby card set for EPL this season looks very good but is crazily priced.

Panini always put effort in for the EPL stickers. The La Liga card sets always look good, it's the one Adrenalyn set I would say they bother with. World Cup stickers used to be top quality but can anyone really say the Qatar set was a memorable one? I certainly remember lots of complaints. The Topps Euro 2024 sticker set is without doubt a stain on the history of collecting - a total mess from design to quality to sizing to licenses. Some people will have liked it but if you put them side by side with almost anything else they were laughably bad.

 

[alekmoloko]

Just want to add one "small" thing to previous message.

100% of adult collectors struggle to finish all his collections for minimal price. But both Panini and Topps wants to earn from us maximal profit. Because of this, collectors and publishers located on different sides of the pitch. And any our (collectors) success gives less profit to publisher. As well as any additional profit for publisher - it's a money from our pockets.
That's why Panini and Topps understand that they can earn more money from adult collectors by issuing different Hobby Boxes, but not in sticker market.
Now sticker market is more and more dedicated to kids. And for them publishers add parrallels into each collection ("my blue Haaland more rare that your green Mbappe! Nah-nah-na-na-nah!"), promote small bundles (eco packs, multipacks, etc) instead of 50-100 packet Boxes, and not provide all stickers in indidvidual service. Because by all this moves publisher trying to increase spends of collector to complete each collection. And if the adult collector by seeing this efforts, and decreasing quality, just not start such collection, kid will keep asking parents for extra money to purchase another bundle with packets (of course if parents have money for this) to find "blue Haalalnd". And kid don't care so much on sticker robust. He just want to have more shiny stickers, and all star-players.

So in my opinion, when we (adult collectors) ask both companies to improve quality, we should be ready to spend more. Because even if Panini or Topps put some efforts into few collections, and see that profit remain mostly on same level (because, as I wrote above, any of us want to finish collection for a minimal price), they just come back on previous quality level, and issue more parallels for a kids on a filmsy paper.
And even if some collectors decide to come back after see those improvements, they still struggle to spend less, and 100 of returning collectors in perspective not give more profit as a 100 kids with their marketing buzz.

P.S. Regarding the marketing buzz. I remember when I collect WC'98 stickers in 1998-99, I heard story from youngsters, that there is somewhere should be "Golden Ronaldo sticker", and to whom, who found it, Panini pay a money prize. And some kids keep to buy sticker packets just to catch "Golden Ronaldo sticker".)))

 

[Peakster]

Collections are already expensive enough. I am trying to find ways to spend less, not more.

Take the new Match Attax set for example - I've got a starter pack only and I'm not collecting it but a couple of other collectors I know are.

The first 468 cards, which takes you up to the 100 clubs are pretty easy to get and very inexpensive to buy on ebay.

But there are another 100+ cards after that in the official collection - mostly limited editions, but also Black edge and HOF cards etc...

They are not cheap - you could easily spend another £200-300 getting those cards.

They add very little to the collection and if you are going after all of those - then good luck.

This is no longer a cheap hobby - you have to be selective these days. The prices for the recent Topps PL set are/were ridiculous.

 

[alekmoloko]

Collections are already expensive enough. I am trying to find ways to spend less, not more.

Take the new Match Attax set for example - I've got a starter pack only and I'm not collecting it but a couple of other collectors I know are.

The first 468 cards, which takes you up to the 100 clubs are pretty easy to get and very inexpensive to buy on ebay.

But there are another 100+ cards after that in the official collection - mostly limited editions, but also Black edge and HOF cards etc...

They are not cheap - you could easily spend another £200-300 getting those cards.

They add very little to the collection and if you are going after all of those - then good luck.

This is no longer a cheap hobby - you have to be selective these days. The prices for the recent Topps PL set are/were ridiculous.

Yes, that's what I'm talking about.
In this case, stickers and basic card sets are the same.
Kids usually not struggle to complete collection. For many of them, favorite team/players is enough to stop. But they still need to buy certain amount of packs to find those cards. Plus, swaps of course. But inside of certain groups there is a chance that all group start to collect stickers/cards for a certain period of time. When you are adult, and telling people at work that you are collecting EURO stickers, they just answer "Ok, happy for you!", and no one responce you with a swap suggetions.
So that's why publishers aimed for kids, and issiue all those sub-sets, or parallels or Energy stickers.
Because nowadays market doesn't work that Panini issue something, and wait until it sold out.
They need to publish many different collection with a different attractions, and chance that different collections will be interested to different kids. Plus, with a small chance that they collect all of them.
Because they need to recoup investments into license.
And grumpy adult collectors, who is looking packs and Boxes on sale to reduce expences, is like a side audience for this.

I'm not call anyone for spending more. I'm just telling my opinion, and state the fact that sitiuation is very close to what I'm writing. That we are not a target audience for this market anymore (even if we were such audience before).

 

[Peakster]

I have completely changed the way I collect in the last year. I don't buy new stuff, wait a while and then get bundles of cards from ebay and fill in the ones I still need from ebay or other web sites.

It is so much cheaper - this year I've collected the latest Topps PL set, the Qatar 2022 World Cup Stickers, The Club World Cup cards and Panini's Lionesses set like that and saved a lot of money.

I'm not going for complete card collections anymore - just too expensive.

I may break my own rules when the Panini EFL set comes out.