| 1954-1962
In
1954 England qualified for the World Cup quarter-finals, but were beaten by
Uruguay. In 1958 and 1962 they were beaten in the initial rounds. Not
surprisingly there was not much interest in the World Cup from English football
card producers in this period. In the leadup to the 1966 tournament Alf Ramsey
had managed to create a lot of interest in England's prospects for the World
Cup, but would this be reflected in attracting small boys to buy gum and
football cards? |
1966
A&BC Chewing Gum produced their first ever
World Cup issue, albeit a strange set of 'stamps' at the cheap price of 1d
each (for gum and sticker/stamp). These stamps are now very rare and
collectable, fetching up to £100
each!
FKS Publishers produced a similarly strange album of
World Cup Stars, but the stickers were already printed in the album so there was
nothing to collect! For FKS, a Spanish printing company, this was their initial
foray into the English market, and they were set to make their mark over the
next 15 years.
After England's tournament victory A&BC Chewing Gum
produced a set of 12
England's Stars pin-ups, featuring the team players, though
strangely including Jimmy Greaves and
omitting Martin Peters. The pin-ups were included in the bubble gum wrappers for
the 1966/67 'black backs', and therefore always have a number of folds. The
paper was thin and flimsy, hence it is now hard to find them in good condition. |
 |
| 1970
In
early 1970 A&BC Chewing Gum hit the market with
World Cup Giant Poster
bubble gum packs for 6d each. The gum packets included a piece of gum, a
World Cup team poster and attractive
England squad cards. There were 37
squad souvenir cards to collect, and only 16 team posters so you ended
up with lots of spare posters as you tried to complete your squad set.
The squad cards are now very collectable. |
 |
|
Producers were competing to get to the market first. The
Daily Sketch produced a set of
cards and offered them through their newspaper as early as February 1970, noting
that the England players were team 'candidates' (as it was obviously too early
for them to know who would be in the final 22-man squad). Other newspaper
companies joined the fray with World Cup wallcharts and posters. Naturally you
had to buy newspapers to get tokens or stickers to attach to your chart. The Sun
newspaper offered a set of stickers including England's Squad for Mexico.
Comics, including the Valiant, Hotspur and Hornet also included World Cup cards
and stickers as giveaways. |
|
   
|
| Anglo Confectionary of Halifax produced a set of 48
double-sided cards with 'World Cup 1970' on one side, and 'Learn the Game' on
the other. These cards were included with Anglo's "Double Kick" bubble gum, sold
for 3d per packet. Esso, in conjunction with Franklin Mint, produced a memorable
set of World Cup coins, collected from petrol stations and displayed in large
cards. These Esso coins are still very common, having been collected in their
thousands, but many of us have fond memories of collecting them when Dad went to
fill up with petrol (one coin for four gallons, two coins for eight). Special
bronze and silver commemorative sets of these coins were produced by Esso and
distributed in folders to company dignitaries and the England players.
FKS
Publishers produced a high quality set of stickers at 6d for 7 stickers
(no gum!). |
   |
| Italian company Panini, one of the great long-term card
producers, produced their memorable
Mexico 70 album and stickers for the
international market, now one of the most sought after albums and sets. |
     |
|
1974
By 1974, with England failing to make the finals,
English football card producers had all but lost interest in the World
Cup. A&BC Chewing Gum, struggling in the death throes of the company,
produced some strange posters of Scottish players. Panini and FKS
produced World Cup 1974 albums, though with an obvious international
rather than English flavour. To their credit some companies, notably
Bassetts, produced sets focussing on the Scottish national side. Goodies
of Bristol issued a set of 25 cards included with their sweet
cigarettes. For the footballing public the glory days of 1966 were gone.
For football card collectors the glory time was the 1970 World Cup. When
will we see their likes again? |
     |
|
The copyright of
all images used on this site remains with the copyright holders. No commercial
gain is made from the use of the images on this site.br>
The copyright of the overall layout, design and textual content of the site is
asserted to reside with its creator. |