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.

Maps courtesy of the algorithm

I love a good map. I enjoy books that have a map in the front of them. I like looking at old maps, obscure maps, made up maps... 

Some of the maps in this post are more like data visualisations. They are all maps that have popped up on my social media feeds that I've liked enough to save. The algorithm now knows I like maps and keeps showing me them!

If anyone finds a map on here that belongs to them, then please let me know and I will credit you properly.

Let's start with this beautiful graphic of African river basins.

I found it interesting to compare the map of natural features with this map showing which European colonisers laid claim to parts of Africa in 1914. 

Moving to another continent altogether, here's a map showing the relative populations of humans and kangaroos in Australia. The roos seem to have the upper hand in most of Oz. 

Meanwhile this agricultural map from 1920 firmly divides Australia into terrain suitable for sheep and inhospitable to sheep. 

A friend of mine commented this would make the good basis for a remix of Insomnia by Faithless. "I can't get no sheep."

This map of placenames in Tasmania is done purely for puerile amusement. It amused me.

Coming closer to home, this is a map of the western edge of Europe during the last ice age. A person could walk from Britain to Denmark across Doggerland. 

A map showing Cymraeg names for places in England. 

And another map showing castles - note how many were built along the border between Cymru and England. 

It's almost as impressive as this map showing Gregg's locations across the UK.

Back to castles, this cute map of castellau Cymreig isn't very accurate.

And to bring the post full circle, here's another map of rivers, showing all the rivers in Cymru. 

I wonder what maps the algorithm will push my way next.