By now, school children all across the land will be trading their swaps and shineys trying to complete their Euro 2012 Sticker Album ahead of the European Championships (and more importantly, the end of the school year). Sadly, many of us are too old to find someone to trade/swap with, so if you start collecting now, you’ll end up spending a fortune. So why not look back at Ireland’s previous appearances in Panini Sticker Albums (where we were usually called Eire or the Republic of Ireland, and sometimes Ierland!)

[Click on the pictures to enlarge them]

Panini 88 European Championship Sticker Album
Ireland’s first appearance at a major tournament was also our first appearance in a sticker album, Panini having launched their celebrated series in 1980 for the European Championships in Italy. Each team got three individual pages, with the final page being dedicated to the tournament’s referees. Ireland’s entry was just after England, so you can see the final English page below.

Panini Italia 90 World Cup Sticker Album
For the 1990 World Cup in Italy, each team was given just two pages each, with the stadia getting three, and the mascots one. All the nations were called by their native name, Austria being Osterreich, so Ireland was simply Ireland. Egypt were given just one page, with two of their players being included on an individual sticker.

Panini USA 94 World Cup Sticker Album
In 1994, Panini released two sticker albums for the World Cup. One was called the Panini World Cup Story sticker album and chronicled all the past tournaments, while the main album was dedicated to USA 1994. There was 444 stickers to collect, with each team given two pages of the 50 overall.

Panini 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea Japan Sticker Album
After eight years being forced to collect Merlin’s Premier League sticker albums, Ireland returned to a major championships in 2002. Panini released the Road to the World Cup album as well as the proper one for the tournament itself. The qualifying album featured selections of goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards who were responsible for helping their teams qualify. Each team was given two pages in the proper album with 576 stickers in total to collect.

Related posts:

1. Republic of Ireland drawn in U19 Euro 2011 Group A
2. Spotlight: Norway
3. Conor Doyle commits to America
4. David Forde replaced by Darren Randolph in Ireland squad
5. Stephen Ireland wants to play for Ireland again