Football 77 is the second album of the French football released by Panini for this series started the year before. At that time Panini produced only the albums of the French and Belgian league other than the Italian series Calciatori.
In the season 1976/1977, FC Nantes won the Division I title with 58 points. The best goalscorers were the Argentinian Carlos Bianchi (Reims) with 28 goals and the young Michel Platini (22 years old, Nancy) with 25 goals.
The Panini album Football 77 follows the same layout of the Belgian Football 76, with basically the same sections and stickers, except for the stadium stickers not included in the Football 77.
The album begins with the calendar of the season and an introductory page with six stickers: the FIFA, UEFA and French Federation logos and presidents. Then the 20 clubs of the First Division are shown in alphabetical order, with 17 stickers over two pages: the club badge, the team photo, the coach, and 14 players. The stickers of the players and the coach are taken showing the full body, exactly like the Belgian Football 76. Quite a unique situation, as in the previous and following French albums (Football 76 and 78) there are the typical portrait stickers.
In the center of the album there is a double page with the football rules seen by the Italian artist Bruno Prosdocimi (Les lois du jeu de football vue par Prosdocimi). This section includes 86 different rules explained with a large funny cartoon drawing completed by 20 stickers.
The section with the second division includes only the club badges of the 36 clubs divided in two groups. One sticker includes two club badges, therefore there are 18 stickers to complete this section.
The last part of the album is again about football rules, but this time more seriously explained ("Football rules presented by RTL"). There are 17 rules and 48 stickers over seven pages. The stickers show explanatory drawings of the rules.
Back cover of the album
French stars Alain Giresse and Michel Platini.
They were in the squad that won the Euro Cup 1984
The beautiful and detailed stickers of the club badges include also the city coat of arms
Carlos Bianchi (top scorer of the season with 28 goals)
and Robert Herbin (legendary player and later coach of Saint-Etienne)
Album details:
Full name: Football 77 en images
Publisher: Panini
League: French (Division I and Division II)
Season: 1976/1977
Number of clubs and stickers per club:
- Division I (20 clubs, 17 stickers)
- Division II (36 clubs, 0.5 stickers)
Other sections:
- Introduction (6 stickers)
- Les lois du jeu du football vues par Prosdocimi (20 stickers)
- Les lois du jeu présentées par RTL (48 stickers)
Checklist: click here
Total number of stickers: 432
