Why football sticker fans could come unstuck with their Euro 2024 books

Will you be trying to complete this year's Euro 2024 sticker album?

The Panini football sticker album has been around for nearly 50 years, and children and adults spend hours swapping, collecting and completing them.

This year, trading card company Topps has made the official album but it's missing a few key players because Panini still holds the rights - or permissions - for some of the top European teams - including the England squad.

That means fans can't collect all the footballers in their kits from all of the nations taking part in this year's tournament in just one album, from one company.

Why are there two different sticker sets for Euro 2024?

For Topps, the official Euros sticker supplier, to be able to print photos and stickers of the players, kits and club badges, they need to have the rights to do so.

But they don't have permissions for all of them. Panini still holds the rights to teams like England, Spain, Germany and Italy, and even has rights for certain players.

Among those missing from the England squad in the official Topps album are John Stones, Phil Foden, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka.

They've been replaced with players that haven't made many appearances for the team like Rico Lewis and Leicester's Luke Thomas.

Some of the tournament's teams, including England and Germany, won't be in their official kits either because Topps doesn't have rights for those kits.

Panini's album is called 'England 2024' and features past and present England players as well as stars from France, Italy and Germany.

Euro 2024 kicks off in Munich on Friday 14 June

What do the football sticker companies say?

A spokesperson from Topps told the BBC it was "proud" of its first sticker collection.

But they admitted it was disappointing that a "small number of players" were missing.

They said it's because the former sticker partner - Panini - "blocked certain parts of the collection".

"Unlike the former sticker partner, we are committed to the fans and believe the offering of stickers and cards - and range of current and former players - will get everyone excited for the tournament."

Panini still hold the rights for some teams including the defending champions Italy

Panini, launched its own "tournament edition" album dedicated to the England team, said it was "extremely proud" to hold the official rights to the Three Lions squads.

"Panini has been synonymous with football for over 60 years, and we remain committed to producing the best possible product for our collectors," a spokesperson said.

"We hope our collectors will enjoy finding players for England alongside favourites from France, Germany, Italy and Spain, all in 100% official kits, in this compact and completable collection."