Football 82

FOOTBALL 93

The start of a new era of domination for Manchester United is mixed with the end of Panini’s long reign as uncontested sticker kings of the UK.

Panini’s Football 93 was the only sticker album to mark the inaugural season of the FA Premier League, but there was no tie-in with the new governing body of England’s top flight, who had other priorities.

A Football 93 album and a sheet of eight stickers was given away with the 31 October 1992 issue of Match Weekly, while spinoff poster magazine Big Shots

also gave away the album and a packet of stickers with the ‘2nd Hot Issue’, dated December 1992.

Panini’s existing relationship with the PFA meant the front cover was branded ‘The Official Players Collection’. Also highlighted were the ‘Giant Size Stickers’, not much different in size to the previous season but with more impact due to the return of the traditional headand-shoulder player mug shots. Arsenal’s David Hillier was seen on the cover, hotly contesting a stray ball with Leeds United’s David Batty and Gary McAllister during the Yorkshire club’s titlewinning season of 1991–92.

The introduction mentioned the reduction in the cost of packets of stickers from 25p to 20p: ‘Now you get five mystery stars in a pack for just 20p so it’s five packs instead of four for the price of £1!’

In general, this first Premier League season felt like the dawning of a new age for the English game and Panini’s album was keen to tap into this. Twelve players were featured for each Premier League team but there were no club badges, team groups or managers. Each player was given a ‘Transfer Rating’ with the strikers generally commanding the highest fees. Ian Wright was valued at £3.5m while Alan Shearer was listed at £3.2m – he had, in fact, moved

This first Premier League season felt like the dawning of a new age for the English game and Panini was keen to tap into this.

for that approximate figure from Southampton to Blackburn Rovers in the summer of 1992.

Despite his role in Leeds winning the 1991–92 title, and some bright moments early on in the following campaign, Eric Cantona was left out of the album. Maybe Panini knew something others didn’t as he was sold to Manchester United a month after the October release of Football 93.

Leeds endured a miserable season in defence of their league title, finishing just two points off the drop zone and going out to Rangers in a second round Champions League tie dubbed ‘The Battle of Britain’.

There was an unfamiliar look to the top of the table at Christmas as Norwich City, Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa filled the top three places. Norwich, managed by Mike Walker, produced the shock of the opening weekend by overturning a 2–0 half-time deficit at Arsenal to win 4–2 thanks to goals from Mark Robins (2), David Phillips and Ruel Fox, all of whom donned the new floral-patterned Canaries shirt in Football 93.

Ron Atkinson’s Villa produced some breathtaking football over the course of the season, including a 3–2 victory in October away to Wimbledon. Two goals from Dean Saunders (seen in Football 93 in a Liverpool shirt, ahead of his move to Villa) were added to by Dalian Atkinson’s 60yard mazy run and chipped finish.

Norwich kept up the pace and were top of the league going into April before a pivotal 3–1 home defeat to Manchester United spelled the beginning of the end for the Norfolk club’s title bid.

That left Villa and Alex Ferguson’s United battling to be the first winners of the Premier League. Villa kept up the pressure but United never faltered, and the title was decided when the Midlands club lost at home to Oldham Athletic on the penultimate weekend.

United eventually won the league by a comfortable margin of 10 points, but it had been a more fiercely contested title race than the final table suggested. The signing of Cantona proved crucial in pushing a side that went close the previous season over the edge in their pursuit of a first league title since 1967.

August 1992 saw Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB start to broadcast the Premier League, branding it ‘A Whole New Ball Game’. Teddy Sheringham scored the first goal of their ‘live’ coverage in the opening ‘Super Sunday’ game between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool. It was the only goal of the match but that was to be the high point in manager Brian Clough’s last season in charge at the City Ground. Sheringham was sold to Tottenham Hotspur a week later and the two-time European Cup winners ended the season nine points adrift of safety.

Middlesbrough also went down before the final day, but the last relegation spot was only decided on the last weekend, with Crystal Palace going down just two seasons after finishing third in the top flight.

Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United earned promotion to the Premier League as winners of the Football League First Division. West Ham United edged out Portsmouth for the second automatic place, while Swindon Town won a thrilling Play-Off final against Leicester City 4–3.

The 1992–93 domestic cup competitions were all about Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday, who contested both the League Cup and FA Cup finals.

John Harkes became the first American to score in a major final at Wembley to put Wednesday ahead in the League Cup final, but Steve Morrow scored the winner for the Gunners, only for his moment in the sun to be overshadowed by a freak postmatch accident that led to the Northern Irishman sustaining a broken arm after an over-zealous celebration by Tony Adams.

The Arsenal skipper’s intervention in the FA Cup semi-final was more welcome as he scored the only goal of the game against Tottenham with a back-post header to avenge the 1991 defeat. The other last-four match-up also pitted local rivals together in a Sheffield ‘derby’. Chris Waddle – complete with a spiky, blonde-tinted coiffure in Football 93 – put the Owls ahead with a free-kick before Alan Cork – whose seemingly lucky grey beard had helped to get The Blades that far – levelled.

FOOTBALL 93 ALBUM FACTS

PAGES: 48 ALBUM PRICE: 50P NUMBER OF STICKERS: 276 PACKET COST: 20P FOR FIVE ‘LARGE’ STICKERS

Mark Bright headed the winner in extra-time to set up another Arsenal–Wednesday final.

Ian Wright and David Hirst traded goals in the first match to leave the teams requiring a replay to settle matters. With the game deep into extra-time it seemed the FA Cup would be decided on penalties for the first time, only for an Andy Linighan header to give Arsenal a cup double.

Although there were no Scottish teams depicted in sticker or card form in 1992–93, there was little change from the preceding years on the pitch as Rangers won the treble of Premier Division title, League Cup and Scottish Cup. Goalkeeper Andy Goram added both the Scottish PFA and Football Writers’ Player of the Year awards to his trophy haul, as much for his efforts in the Champions League as on the domestic front. The Ibrox club narrowly lost out on a place in the final to Marseille.

While sticker fans were again deprived of a Scottish album the following season, a series of Panini Scottish Premier Division albums appeared again from the 1994–95 season, starting with the Scottish Premier Division 95. These ran all the way to 2011–12.

For English football, Football 93 was the end of an era for Panini. Despite missing out on the Premier League collectables license, Panini’s relationship with the PFA meant they returned in 1995–96 with their next album, this time for top-flight players only, called Super Players ’96.

As the Football League was now a separate entity from the Premier League in England, Panini was also free to negotiate with them for a series of albums – starting with Football League 95, which covered all three tiers of the Endsleigh League.

All good things come to those who wait, and Panini’s patience did eventually pay off when they won the license to print the Premier League sticker album for 2019–20. In the meantime, back in the ’90s, there were many other collectables markets to be conquered.

1992–93 HONOURS

FA Premier League:

MANCHESTER UNITED

Football League First Division:

NEWCASTLE UNITED

Football League Second Division:

STOKE CITY

Football League Third Division:

CARDIFF CITY

FA Cup:

ARSENAL

League Cup:

ARSENAL

Scottish Premier Division:

RANGERS

Scottish First Division:

RAITH ROVERS

Scottish Second Division:

CLYDE

Scottish Cup:

RANGERS

Scottish League Cup:

RANGERS