The FIFA announced the past May 7 which had granted the rights to the American company Fanatics. The federal court of the southern district of New York has not yet commented on the complaint filed by Panini in 2023 for alleged anti-competitive practices. While the dispute is resolved, the Italian company is taking advantage of a rapidly growing market. According to the investment bank Morgan Stanleythe global collectibles business is valued at 100 billion dollars annual. The dimension can be understood with a single photo of this World Cup: it is estimated that they will be sold between 500 and 800 million envelopes, 35 million albums and they will circulate around the world 7 billion stickers or sheets.
The focus is placed with special attention on Latin Americawhere the secondary market has picked up speed. The region represents the 10% of the business of Panini and the southern countries appear as the most dynamic on the continent. In South Americaalbum sales have already surpassed 24% to the edition of Taste. Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Chili lead the rise in profits, as explained to Efe the commercial manager of Panini in Chile, Milton Benitezwhich links the rebound to the area’s football tradition and the recent good times of some teams. “Colombia is going through a great soccer moment and both Brazil and Argentina are like a World Cup tradition, soccer can be experienced on every corner,” Benítez explained.
Chilidespite not participating in the tournament, has also taken part in the phenomenon. The golden generation that won the America’s Cup in 2015 and 2016 helps “bring back that nostalgia of having been successful.” “In the years when there is no Copa América or World Cup, the work is divided 30 or 50 times“explains the manager. According to Benitezin this edition you can overcome the 30 million envelopes sold in Chile, with an estimated growth of 100% compared to the previous World Cup. In fact, sales in the country ten days ago exceeded the initial expectation of growing one 25%.
The product has also grown. In 1970, when the brothers Giuseppe and Benito Panini They released the first World Cup collectible, the album had 50 pages and 271 stickerssheets or figurines. The current one reaches 120 pages and the 980 cards. In addition, the secondary market has exploded with special sheets in four variants of color and relief that appear one each one hundred envelopesas explained Benitez. “What we realized is that collectors enjoy having a product that is special and differentiated and that is also scarce,” he says about a special edition that has as its most valuable and exclusive sheet one of Messi with gold trim.
The exchange has also taken to the streets. In Santiago de Chilethe stadium Bicentennial of Florida welcomed the “Cambiaton” of world-class films, with more than 8,000 people according to the marketing manager of Panini in Chile, Barbara Quintero. Soccer fans gathered on May 31, 2026 to change album stickers World Cup 2026 in a scene that explains the size of the phenomenon. Very close to Moneda Palace, Julio Malvino carry 44 years exchanging and selling sheets at his stall. Serves around thousand people a day and, from six in the morningwhen he arrives to open, there are already people waiting for him.
Malvino sell each sheet at 300 Chilean pesos, $0.34 to the current change, and those with a hologram to 400 pesos, $0.45. His exchange system is simple: people bring two repeats and he gives one. If the sheet is special, another exchange is negotiated. He estimates that filling the album by purchasing prints at his stall would cost around 300,000 Chilean pesos, $335.24a price with which “you wouldn’t be able to fill even half the album by buying envelopes.” A few meters away, after a line of at least ten people and several collectors exchanging chips, appears Franco Rivera. Has 19 yearsstarted ago three weeks to sell prints to buy a new phone and already raised the money he needed. Every day he invests on average 110,000 pesos, $123.20in envelopes and has come to win 300,000 pesos, $335.24in a single day. It also sells boxes with the World Cup logo to store some 400 sheets. He makes them himself with a 3D printer that works day and night and produces five boxes each seven hours.
Fanatics enters the scene
For new owners of Paninithe future now lies in diversifying. In the company they assume that Fanatics has many options to stay with the World Cup business, one more step within the close relationship it already maintains with the FIFA. Fanatics Collectibles had become the official stadium retail and merchandising operator for the 2026 World Cup. Additionally, the company will host the Fanatics Festwhere the official press conferences for the final of the competition will take place, and will organize a live broadcast from a convention center in New York.
In Panini They received the news calmly, explains the commercial manager in Chile. Within the company they already knew the end of the contract and have reinforced other licenses, such as those of Netflix either disney. Meanwhile, the focus remains on preparing the next Worldin which Panini will meet 60 years consecutive with the official album of the tournament, with stands open since dawn, freshly cut envelopes and collectors looking for the sheet that has not yet appeared.
