When football becomes a sticky affair

A dapper young businessman strides through the Friday lunchtime crowd in Merchants Street firmly focused on the transactions he is about to conduct, not on the floor of the stock exchange, but outside Anastasi's Panini shop.

He immediately sets to work, checking lists of his fellow Panini sticker enthusiasts in the hope someone will trade the stickers he needs to take him closer to completing his Panini Fifa World Cup 2010 sticker album.

This is 'trader's corner', and the businessman is one of many collectors of all ages keen to trade, sell and buy stickers, watched and occasionally photographed by curious tourists seemingly perplexed by the enduring appeal of Panini stickers in digital-age Malta.

With less than a month to go to the World Cup, business is frenetic for store owner Dominic Anastasi, 59, who says the popularity of the stickers is increasing despite the gratifications offered by modern technology.

"People like the stickers because they are collectables and it's always a surprise when you open the pack. The internet is there, but there are certain things in life the internet can't provide. Panini stickers allow people to socialise and exchange properly," he said.

Mr Anastasi has had exclusive rights to sell Panini stickers in Malta since 1969, when he began selling packets from his father's shoe shop round the corner from his current location. He opened his first specialised store in 1981, moving to his current premises the following year.

Over the years Mr Anastasi built such good relations with the Italian Panini family, which founded the company in 1961, that Panini family members even attended his wedding.

Although the Panini family no longer own the business, Mr Anastasi still enjoys a close working relationship with the company, and stickers are introduced in Malta before anywhere else in Europe.

But despite his local monopoly, Mr Anastasi points out that his business is not without risk and hard work. He claims he has to pay Wasteserv to destroy "hundreds of thousands" of unwanted stickers every year, and preparations to sell this year's World Cup stickers began last September.

The World Cup stickers, which are the most popular variety produced by Panini, were released locally on April 7 to coincide with children going back to school, but quite clearly it is not just children who collect them.

"You come across many older people. They come with the excuse that they need stickers for their nephews or sons, but really they're for them," said Mr Anastasi.

The first man The Sunday Times spoke to confirmed this. "These (stickers) are for my son," said 50-year-old John Asciak from Żejtun, as he eagerly exchanged stickers with another man.

"OK, not really," he confessed after finishing his dealings, perhaps aware he seemed a little too enthusiastic to be acting on behalf of anyone else. He revealed he had spent around €55 on packets to fill most of his album, and is now trading for the few remaining stickers he needs.

"Collecting stickers is something I have enjoyed for many years and I would not want to miss out on," he added.

Saturday is the busiest day for trading stickers and yesterday the crowd of enthusiasts filled a large part of the street.

Mr Anastasi insisted he does not invite people to stand outside his store; they congregate of their own accord. The police had warned him last month about the crowds, but Valletta council has since provided him with a permit to set up a table outside to assist collectors with their dealings.

Among yesterday's crowd was Lorraine Mangion from San Ġwann, who was clutching a list of the stickers her husband needs to complete his collection.

"He's been collecting the stickers since I've known him, which is 11 years," she said somewhat sheepishly.

Also present was Alfred Cuschieri, 71, of Ħamrun, who began collecting when Panini introduced its first World Cup album in 1970 and has completed every World Cup and European Championship collection since.

"The majority of Maltese are football fans and this is another way for us to talk and learn about football," he surmised when asked for his thoughts on Panini's enduring popularity.

At the other end of the generation scale, brothers Charlton Mifsud, 13, and Jordan, 11, from Ħamrun were in search of the 76 stickers they need to complete their joint album. "I like having all the players because I love football," was Charlton's simple explanation for his hobby.

"Panini stickers are popular all over Europe, but in Malta they are a phenomenon," declared Mr Anastasi, and anyone in Merchants Street yesterday would find it difficult to refute his claim.