Football sticker boycott - 2026 edition

For the second World Cup in a row I have decided to boycott it in my own small way - by not collecting the official football stickers. I boycotted the Qatar World Cup stickers, along with all other merch, because I didn't like the way FIFA was enabling 'sportswashing' on an international stage. 

And since then FIFA have gone even more grotesque, giving a "peace prize" to Donald Trump just before he started an utterly mindless war in the Middle East. It physically disgusts me.

The profiteering and price-gouging on tickets is more blatant bastardry, and I just don't want to be even a passive consumer of it any more. By not qualifying, Wales have made it easy for me not to watch any games, unlike in Qatar, where I wanted to watch at least their matches. But now I can tune the whole thing out.

However, when it comes to unofficial stickers, the boycott doesn't apply. On my recent cruise holiday, I went into a Croatian supermarket that was running a promotion of a free packet if we spent 10 euros. 

So these are the free stickers from Konzum in Dubrovnik.

There are no official markings on this or references to FIFA. The trophy is a playful cartoon that doesn't look like the World Cup. This is boycott-legal.

There are two cards or stickers in each packet. I got a shiny card in each one, with the following players: Senegal's Kalidou Koulibaly, Columbia's James Rodriguez, Switzerland's Manuel Akanji and, er, a kangaroo. 

One of these things is not like the others 

The marsupial may be representing Australia. Here's a photo of the sticker back to show it is from the right set. 

Meanwhile, back at home, another shop is running a football sticker promotion, tied into the home nations. Technically, these Cymru stickers from Marks & Spencer aren't official World Cup stickers so I've decided they would count as boycott-legal

However, when I went into M&S and did a small shop that qualified for a free packet, I was told they had run out of stock! So I may as well have decided to boycott them anyway.

Shiny football sticker disappointment

I'm resisting the temptation to collect the stickers for the upcoming European Championships. Mainly because of the cost, but also because Topps - the company that now has the rights to produce the stickers - has introduced deliberately rarer stickers and 'variations' (different version of stickers) to collect as well. And that annoys me.

However, I'm not averse to free stickers. On a day trip to England yesterday I ended up with some freebies from M&S when I bought some food.

(In Cymru M&S are giving away stickers of Cymru players. I haven't got any of those. Yet.)

As anyone who has collected stickers like this will know, you get a special joyful feeling when the pack contains a "shiny" sticker.

My thrill was short-lived in this case. The shiny sticker was... advertising M&S food!

Ah, well. Less than 3 weeks to go to the Euros.

The big 2013 Christmas Card Audit

I did this for the first time last year, and that means I can be all uber-geeky and do like-for-like comparisons. I have further subdivided the themes to throw further light on what Christmas means in the minds of the people who make Christmas cards, and the people who buy them.

(Of course, it's not a truly scientific sample as it's based only on the people who gave us Christmas cards. If you're one of them, thank you.)

Total number of Christmas cards: 97 (last year's figure: 104)
Hand-made / home-produced cards: 7 (6) plus two designed by kids and printed by schools
Cards with magnets on: sadly none (last year: 1)

Cards sold in aid of charity: 44 (42)
Of which...
Traidcraft cards: 5 (down from 6 last year)
Oxfam cards: None (2 last year)
Main charity represented: Diabetes UK with 5 cards.
Total number of charities represented: 62 (up from 40 last year). This includes one card that raised funds for 30 different charities.
Marks and Spencer cards (new category): 12

Themes
Religious-themed cards: 33 (down from 37)
Cards featuring the Nativity: 15
The following Christmas story 'characters' appeared on cards too:
Three kings: 5 (down from 9)
The shepherds: 4 (up from 2)
The star of Bethlehem: 2 (up from 1)

Other themes (new categories asterisked)
'Peace': 2 (down from 4)
Santa: 10 (compared to 6 in 2012) plus one that was just several Santa hats
Penguins: 3 (down from 5)
Various cartoon bears: 2 (down from 12 bears in 2012)
Dogs in Santa Hats: None this year! (2 last year)
*Deer/reindeer: 6
*Christmas decorations: 4
*Christmas trees: 5
*Robins: 3
*Mistletoe: 2
*Winter scene/scenery: 7
Messages
Cards that mention 'Christmas' on the front: 35 (down from 45)
Like last year, many of the religious-themed cards don't mention Christmas on the front.

So, that's it. Fewer cards, but more charity fundraising cards - aren't our friends lovely - with a mix of themes. A third have a religious theme and a third mention 'Christmas' on the front, with some overlap, but still the religious elements of the midwinter holiday haven't quite faded away.