At the Panini factory, in the Tamboré business center, in Barueri, where the World Cup album took shape, silence about its content was the rule. During a visit made by the reporter a week before the launch event, not even in front of the machines and piles of stickers was it possible to resolve doubts that mobilized fans.
The answers already existed, but they were concentrated in one person, the CEO of the company in Brazil, the Chilean Raul Vallecillo, who, despite being authorized to speak, maintains the suspense.
“I prefer that, when the album is on the market, you find out yourself which players will be in each selection”, he said.
In the factory area, despite being open to the press, circulation was limited by banners on the floor. Concentrated, employees — women are the majority on the production line — dedicated themselves to sorting, checking and packaging the figurines at a continuous pace. Even among the visible stickers, no clue resolved the main unknowns about the Brazilian team represented in the album.
The main one — Neymar’s presence — has already been clarified. Panini confirmed the authenticity of the Spanish version of the album, which was sold in Europe last week, without the player.
If the Brazil page was shrouded in mystery for a while, at least one definition already appeared on the production lines during the visit. The report had access to stickers from Iran, including images of the cast posed, which indicates the presence of the selection in the album.
According to the company, the definition of teams is not its own editorial decision.
“The format of the number of teams, as well as the teams that qualify, is not defined by Panini, it is defined by FIFA [Federação Internacional de Futebol]. And, as long as FIFA maintains [o Irã] within the group of teams that go to the World Cup, it will obviously be on the album”, said Vallecillo.
Although FIFA president Gianni Infantino maintains that Iran will compete in the World Cup, recent statements by the country’s authorities cast doubt on the team’s participation, amid the war with the United States, one of the hosts of the World Cup.
The entity, in turn, maintains the expectation that the scenario will stabilize in the weeks leading up to the competition, which is scheduled to open on June 11th.
It was in this scenario that Panini had to close the album weeks before the start of the tournament. This edition brought an additional challenge for the Italian company, as it will be the first with 48 teams.
The increase in the number of teams also directly impacts the size of the collection. With more selections, the number of pages and stickers needed to complete the album increases, which puts pressure on production in a shorter interval. In this edition, the package now has seven stickers for R$7 — there were four for R$5 in the previous cycle.
Furthermore, it was necessary to wait for the last vacancies to be defined via recap, at the beginning of April, to start production.
“From the time the last selection qualified to the moment we need to be on the market, we have a very, very short deadline,” said the CEO of Panini. The product will be sold from May 1st. Before that, this Saturday (25), there is a launch event at the Pacaembu stadium.
Given the reduced interval between defining the classifieds and completing production, the publisher used probability models to define the casts for each country.
“The selection of players for each team is previously defined by the sports area of our company”, explained Raul Vallecillo. “This responds to a previous study on what the chances are of each player being called up.”
Despite avoiding mentioning names, some athletes are treated as a practically certain presence. The Brazilian Vinicius Junior and the French Mbappé, for example, from the beginning appeared in the visual communication of the album’s promotional pieces.
Even with the use of probabilities, Panini recognizes that it does not always get the final list of players right. Injuries and last-minute changes are part of the process and are corrected later.
“It happens in every World Cup. There are players who, although they are on the initial list, may be left out due to injury or another reason,” said Vallecillo. “That’s when we release a set of stickers that corrects these changes.”
