The Wales football team is set to get its own sticker set if they qualify for Euro 2016, according to manufacturers Panini.
The company confirmed the plans after a football fan in Nelson complained that his local Co-op was selling stickers and albums of England’s footballing stars.
The unnamed football fan contacted Plaid Cymru AM Lindsay Whittle to complain that stickers of Welsh stars, such as Caerphilly’s Aaron Ramsey, were nowhere to be seen on the shelves.
South Wales East AM Mr Whittle said: “A constituent who complained at a Co-op store in Nelson about the England sticker stand was told that ‘they always get sent the England ones’.
“They said that it was all down to WH Smith’s, who are the wholesalers and, individually, the stores have no say over the supply.
“I know how popular football stickers are with children and collectors and I hope that the manufacturers will ensure a sticker album is produced for sale in Wales if the nation qualifies. Businesses need to be sensitive to the needs of Welsh football fans and people in Wales generally.
“I can’t imagine manufacturers pushing an England sticker album into Scotland or, indeed, a Wales one in England – if next month Wales as the nation hopes makes to France in 2016.”
But sticker firm Panini told Caerphilly Observer that Wales’ footballers will get their own stickers if they qualify for next year’s tournament.
Jessica Tadmor, Head of Marketing at Panini UK, said: “We have Panini collectors all over the UK who are avid collectors of all our releases.
“We’re confident that Wales will qualify and that there will be Panini stickers and trading cards of the Welsh team in the market next year.”
Wales need just one point from their last two games to reach the finals in France next year and qualify for a major tournament for the first time since 1958.
They could qualify as early as Saturday, October 10, when they face Bosnia-Herzegovina away.
An FAW spokesperson confidently said: “If we qualify, or when we qualify, they will be producing Panini Welsh stickers.”
I feel that there is a rather nasty underlying hatred towards England from the Welsh and this rather petty story is pathetic, if and when a Welsh football sticker album was for sale in England nobody would say anything about it but if they did then they would be branded a racist, but it’s fair game for every other home nation to be racist towards the English.
I quite agree. It is fair to have banter by constantly wanting to beat the English at sport, wind them up about losing, or producing Six Nations adverts with all of the teams saying they want England to lose, but this type of petty criticism is silly.
I must say, on the point of having no sticker collection for Welsh football fans I think it comes down to supply. There are tens of millions more English fans who want to support their team compared to Welsh fans. How many people will want to complete the Welsh collection?