Recently-Acquired Panini Sticker Album of the Day #7: French 'Football 77'

Of course, as a confirmed football Europhile almost from the outset of developing an interest in the game, a Panini sticker album from elsewhere on the continent other than the recent acquisitions from Belgium would be a welcome addition to the collection, & so it has come to pass that we’ve managed to track down & procure a pair of later-Seventies editions from France, another of our ‘spiritual homes’ (of which there are a fair few), & here we (re)present the first of these, the ‘Football 77’ publication.

Using the same basic format as the Belgian edition from the previous year (please see yesterday’s post), suitably road-tested one might say, the French ‘77’ album features full-length portraits of the trainers & playing squads of the season’s Ligue 1 clubs, delightful as ever in the details of strips & personal appearance, especially in this case the trainers, many of whom chose to be pictured in their ‘civvies’, with flared trousers & denim much in evidence (included is a supplementary image of some more of the trainers removed from the context of their club pages), a centrepiece of that curiously manic cartoon as appeared in the Belgian ‘76’ edition, with the two groups of the ‘Deuxieme Division’ represented by just their crests, & concluding with the rules of the game again, mono-lingually this time.

Enough blather – here’s a sample selection of images (note the advertisement, in a football publication of all places, for Panini's 'Barbie' album, the like of which, coincidentally read this very morning, is humorously described in the wonderful & poignant 'Got, Not Got' as being amongst 'minority sports'!)...