I read with interest that the sticker people at Panini have fudged the England team in their 2006 World Cup album. Panini present what they consider to be England’s principal 12 players, but for some reason they have chosen to omit hardy regular Gary Neville. OK, so Neville was well behind Warren Barton in the queue when God was handing out faces for right-backs, but surely footballing criteria should determine Panini’s selections. Instead they have included the beleaguered Sol Campbell alongside two other centre-backs - John Terry and Rio Ferdinand. There’s a good chance Campbell won’t even make it to the World Cup, whilst Neville has been an unequivocal first choice defender for almost a decade. But perhaps Panini are on to something! We’re all tired of hearing about England’s perennial ‘left-side’ problem - if we remove the right-back position from the team, this could provide some much needed counterbalance.

The Panini bods have also decided to include a space for Jermain Defoe on their hallowed pages. Defoe is also far from certain to be on the ferry to Germany having had limited opportunities for Spurs this year. Even if Defoe makes the squad, there are many players who feature ahead of him in England’s top 12. In fact England’s top XII can be rattled off by any England fan without much thought: Robinson, Neville, Terry, Ferdinand, A. Cole, Beckham, Carrick, Gerrard, Lampard, J. Cole, Rooney and Owen. And if Panini wanted to feature a striker as ‘12th man’ they should surely have included Peter Crouch.

The comment by a Panini spokesman: “There are plenty of difficult decisions to make before Sven announces his 23-man squad” doesn’t really have much credibility. Plenty of things may change before June, but this doesn’t exonerate Panini for the aforementioned clangers. At least the solution is simple: to ensure they get it right from now on, Panini must consult a committee of 7-12 year olds [boy:girl ratio, ∞:0].

If you have any examples of ridiculous inclusions or omissions from old sticker albums, Herr Hippo would be pleased to hear from you.

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