The reason why Wales feature in the new Euro 2024 sticker album

When the new Euro 2024 sticker album went on sale recently there was much puzzlement when it was revealed that Wales were amongst the teams to appear in the album, published by Topps, who have taken over from rivals Panini as the creators of the new collection.

After suffering Euro playoff heartache, losing to Poland in a gut-wrenching penalty shootout, Wales missed out on the opportunity to take their place amongst the teams competing at Euro 2024 in Germany.

However, the Welsh squad still feature in the pages of the sticker album, which went on sale nationwide last week.

The reason for this is quite simple. The truth of the matter is Wales only appear because of publishing schedules.

The album had to be printed prior to the playoffs, so all those teams – including Wales – who competed in the Euro 2024 playoffs appear in their own pages.

For some keen Welsh sticker collectors this might be great news, a chance to be involved in a tournament by proxy, for others, well it might just be rubbing salt in the wounds.

The inaugural EURO sticker collection from Topps celebrates the EURO 2024 tournament with an 88 page album and 728 stickers to collect. It also features a range of categories such as Top XI, Captains, Players to Watch, Nation Logos, Artists, Legendary Euro Masters plus Gold Star Player stickers, Gold Signature Series stickers.

There is also an appearance for Gareth Bale who appears as a Euro Master, while Brennan Johnson also doubles up with a Player to Watch sticker.

Ironically, this is not the first time Wales has actually appeared in a tournament album they didn’t qualify for having previously appeared as ‘an excluded nation’ in the Panini Argentina 1978 World Cup album.

The stickers featured a Wales shiny badge, as well as Terry Yorath, Joey Jones, John Toshack and Leighton James.