Panini SPL 2005

The 2004/2005 Scottish Premier League was a big fight between Rangers and Celtic. Before the final day of the season, Celtic was sitting in pole position but they lost with two late goals from Motherwell leaving the title to the rivals Rangers for just one point. This dramatic event became popular with the name "Helicopter Sunday", with the championship trophy changing direction during the last game.

As a consequence, the Celtic manager Martin O'Neill stepped down at the end of the season after five years. The top scorer of the season was John Hartson (Celtic) with 25 goals. 

We present here the official sticker collection of the league. The album SPL 2005 is the 12th of the Panini Scottish series started in 1992 (with the gap of the albums '93 and '94).

The album begins with the contents and a welcome page including the shiny stickers of the trophy and the Premier League logo. Then the stadiums of the 12 competing clubs are included with 12 stickers over three pages. After a page with the league scores, the clubs are shown in alphabetical order. For each club there are 33 stickers over six pages. In the first page the club is presented with five stickers: the shiny badge, the team photo (large sticker), the matchday programme, the home kit (shiny sticker), and the away kit. In the following three pages, the players of the squad are presented with 18 individual portrait stickers. Player stickers are all autographed and the captain sticker is shiny. In the fifth page there are five stickers of players in action, out of which two are large and one is shiny. In the last page there are five more stickers. The first sticker is the mistery player, which is a shiny sticker of a player with the face covered. It is possible to scratch the surface to reveal the mistery player. The other stickers are "goal celebration" and "peel and play" (three stickers) to complete an action photo on the album. 

In the center of the album there is a special section with the best players 2004/2005. The two central pages can be opened to form a four page layout. In the two external pages that are shown when the booklet is closed there are 12 transparent stickers of players in action (one per club). On the inside there is one page per position: best goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and strikers. For the best goalkeeper (Stefan Klos) there is a shiny action sticker and a big action photo composed by three stickers. In this page there is also one sticker for the second and third best goalkeeper composed by two half size stickers. The same layout is repeated for the page with the best defender (Boumsong), the best miedfilder (Alan Thompson), and the best striker (John Hartson). After this section the album continues with the six remaining clubs of the Scottish Premier League.

In the last part of the album there are three more sections with stickers: Rising Stars, Internationals, and All-Time Greats. 

"Rising Stars" includes 12 stickers of young, talented players (one per club), out of which six are shiny stickers. The album includes also a description and stats of each player. 

"Internationals" includes a selection of 12 players who have played for Scotland (one per club). These are all regular stickers of players in action. 

"All-Time Greats" is a page devoted to four of the absolute best players who have enriched the Scottish Premier League, since it began in 1998. The four large stickers are Stefan Klos (Rangers), McNamara (Celtic), Barry Ferguson (Rangers), and Henrik Larsson (Celtic).

Back cover of the album

There are four update stickers, with no specific space to fit them in the album: Bellamy (Celtic), Ferguson (Rangers), Crawford (Dundee Utd), Burchill (Hearts). Here the stickers of Bellamy and Burchill, which include also the player details and history.

The shiny stickers of the club badge and the home kit

Jean-Alain Boumsong shiny and transparent stickers.

Stefan Klos (ex Borussia Dortmund) played for Rangers from 1998 to 2007. The Georgian striker Shota Arveladze scored 44 goals in 94 games for Rangers from 2001 to 2005.

The Croatian striker Dado Prso scored 31 goals in 94 games for Rangers from 2004 to 2007. Here his portrait and shiny hotshot stickers.

The French defender Jean-Alain Boumsong played also for Juventus, Newcastle and Olympique Lyon. The Brazilian midfielder Juninho Paulista played only 8 months (9 caps) for Celtic before moving back to Palmeiras in Brazil. He previously played for Atletico Madrid and Middlesbrough. 

Album details:

Full name: Scottish Premier League (SPL) 2005

Publisher: Panini

League: Scottish Premier League

Season: 2004/2005

Number of clubs: 12

Stickers per club: 33

Other sections:

• Welcome (2 stickers)
• Stadiums and fixtures (12 stickers)
• Best Players 2004/2005 (32 stickers)
• Rising stars (12 stickers)
• Internationals (12 stickers)
• All-time greats (4 stickers)

Extra: updates (4 stickers)

Checklist: click here

Total number of stickers: 470