Recently-Acquired Panini Sticker Album of the Day #3: 'Football 81'

Today featuring Panini’s English/Scottish Football ’81, a couple of years down the line from the previous entry, with slight changes to the design of the player stickers & the club crests back to being set on a shiny gold ground.

Less perms this time around, the heyday having obviously passed, &, even with changes in personnel, it’s noticeable that many teams are still sporting the same shirt/kit designs as two years ago, a now-unheard-of state of affairs (although one might appreciate West Ham United’s return to a more restrained & classic claret with sky blue sleeves shirt from the earlier Admiral yoked ‘cowboy’ design, striking though that might have been), & before the days when sponsors’ & other logos started blighting the shirts’ appearance (nostalgic sigh).

Note how the Scots have been downgraded to half-sized stickers for each of the players, although the squads get a decent teams'-worth eleven-player representation.

Again, it’s a valuable aesthetic record & another essential investment for the collection.