Fanatics will increase its presence in the global soccer landscape by gaining future exclusive licensing rights to produce trading cards and sticker books for the men’s and women’s national teams for England, Brazil, Germany and Italy, multiple sources have told The Athletic.
According to sources with direct knowledge of the deals, Topps (owned by Fanatics) will acquire the Brazil license starting in 2027, the England and Germany licenses in 2031 and the Italy license in 2035. Panini currently holds licenses for those four federations, continuing the ongoing trend of Fanatics winning licenses, which diminishes Panini’s portfolio.
A senior European soccer federation source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the deals haven’t been announced, said, “We thought it was going to be a difficult choice, because of how long we’ve been with Panini (some partnerships spanning more than 60 years). But having seen the vision and the innovation and the energy that Fanatics has brought to the category, they really, really impressed us and it became an easy choice after that.”
These licenses give Fanatics/Topps the rights to use the intellectual property of the respective soccer federations — their names, logos, crests that appear on uniforms and uniform designs — on trading cards and stickers. The licenses also grant group player rights, meaning the ability for names and images of players on national teams when they’re in competition to appear on cards and sticker books. This can also include autographed and game-used relic cards and stickers.
The licenses will not include rights for former players to appear in sets, though, as Fanatics/Topps would have to procure those separately.
Panini holds the licensing rights to print World Cup cards and sticker books for the 2026 and 2030 editions of the tournament. Given FIFA’s increasing ties to Fanatics and Topps’ growing ties to some of the top national soccer federations, a FIFA trading card and sticker license shift away from Panini to Fanatics seems distinctly possible.
On Monday, FIFA and Fanatics announced a partnership for this year’s Fanatics Fest, a four-day sports festival in New York. Fanatics aligned this year’s event to coincide with the 2026 World Cup final weekend at MetLife Stadium. In December, FIFA selected Fanatics as the official on-site retail licensee for this year’s World Cup, meaning Fanatics will be responsible for all official tournament shops in every host city.
The shifting licensing dynamic hovers as Panini will reportedly re-open the doors for a possible sale of the company. According to Reuters last week, Panini’s shareholders are expected to decide on an “external investment” by the end of 2026 after two dozen potential buyers showed interest and that Panini’s valuation could be around $5.8 billion (5 billion euros).
Panini originally entertained selling the company in 2025, which The Athletic chronicled in December. Sources involved in sales-pitch discussions told The Athletic that Panini pulled back attempts to sell the company late last year with the hopes that sales involving 2026 World Cup products would improve the company’s valuation. Fanatics wasn’t among the entities attempting to buy Panini last year, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told The Athletic in December.
All of this is occurring with Panini in a court battle with Fanatics. Panini has accused Fanatics of anticompetitive behavior and monopolization of the sports card industry after Fanatics acquired exclusive, long-term licensing rights from the NBA and NFL previously held by Panini to pair with its exclusive licenses for MLB, the Premier League, F1, Bundesliga, WWE and others.
Topps released NBA licensed cards in October 2025 and will release NFL licensed cards April 15.
Fanatics has denied the claims in Panini’s suit and alleged in an ongoing countersuit that Panini embarked on a “protracted, unlawful, and deceitful campaign of unfair trade practices, strong-arm tactics, and tortious misconduct” in an attempt to force Fanatics to pay an extortionate amount for Panini to terminate its licenses early in 2022.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed two of the three claims against Panini for tortious interference that Fanatics lodged. Via Law360, one dismissed count involved allegations that Panini used the “sham” prospect of a deal for its licenses to sidetrack Fanatics from pursuing deals with the NBA and with individual basketball and football prospects. The second dismissed count concerned an allegation that Panini attempted to induce high-profile 2023 and 2024 NFL Draft prospects to breach their exclusive licensing deals with Fanatics.
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