Only Good Stickers: Panini Foot 2012 (Belgium)

domenica 5 maggio 2013

Panini Foot 2012 (Belgium)

Panini Foot 2012 is the official sticker collection dedicated to Belgian football for the 2011/2012 season and represents the 40th edition of a series that began in 1972/73. Over four decades, the Foot albums became a true institution for Belgian collectors, and this anniversary edition fully reflects that tradition by offering an extraordinarily broad overview of football in Belgium.

The album covers the Belgian Pro League, the 2de Klasse, the 3de Klasse, and even the women’s championship, for a remarkable total of 84 clubs across 72 pages. The collection begins with the 16 Pro League clubs, which form the core of the album. Each team is presented across three pages with a total of 26 stickers. The first page contains six stickers: the shiny club badge, the coach, two fabric stickers of the home and away kits, and two team squad stickers. The use of fabric material for the uniforms gives the album a premium touch, while the metallic silver logos add visual quality and continuity throughout the collection. The next two pages are dedicated entirely to the players, with 20 individual portrait stickers. One of the most distinctive aspects of this album is the design of the player stickers themselves: instead of the classic rectangular format, the stickers follow the shape of the player’s head and shoulders and are positioned on a printed football pitch according to their usual playing role. This creative presentation gives each squad page a tactical and dynamic appearance rarely seen in football albums.

After the Pro League section, the album continues with the 2de Klasse, the Belgian second division. The eighteen clubs are spread across six pages, with three teams per page. Each club is represented by two player stickers, each containing six players, for a total of 12 players per team, plus half of a shiny logo sticker shared with another club. Although much more compact than the Pro League presentation, this structure still provides substantial coverage of the second tier.

The album then moves to the 3de Klasse, divided into groups A and B with 18 teams each. The layout remains identical to the second division section, with two player stickers representing twelve players and half a metallic club badge per team.

One of the most interesting features of Foot 2012 is the inclusion of women’s football through the Dames/Vrouwen section. The 14 clubs of the Belgian women’s first division are included, each represented by a team squad sticker and half of a shiny club badge sticker. At a time when women’s football was still rarely featured in mainstream sticker albums, this inclusion was particularly progressive and adds additional historical value to the collection.

From a sporting perspective, the season was won by R.S.C. Anderlecht, who finished ahead of Club Brugge KV and K.A.A. Gent.

Overall, Panini Foot 2012 is one of the most comprehensive Belgian football albums produced by Panini. Its combination of four competitive levels, innovative player sticker designs, fabric kit stickers, metallic logos, and the inclusion of women’s football creates an exceptionally rich portrait of Belgian football during the 2011/12 season.