CHURCHES in Mexico, one of the countries hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, have been holding events at which children trade stickers for their Panini albums.

Panini, which has exclusive rights to produce the 2026 World Cup sticker album, says that its edition contains 980 stickers, the magazine Crux reports. The number of countries taking part in the tournament has risen from 32 four years ago to 48 this year. In Latin America, a seven-sticker pack costs $1.40. “The minimum cost to complete the album would therefore be $196, but duplicate stickers drive the final cost much higher,” Crux reports.

Sticker-swapping events enable children to obtain them free of charge. Such events have been held in the parishes of St Augustine, Jonacatepec, in the state of Morelos, and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Mexico City. Such events have also been held in churches in Brazil, together with match screenings.

Fr Pedro Mocelin, a priest in the archdiocese of Curitiba, in southern Brazil, who has organised a sticker-swapping event, told Crux: “The stickers are a real craze. We saw an opportunity to draw more children and teenagers to the Church. Through these encounters, we grow closer to one another and to God.”

Many World Cup players continue to draw on their Christian faith for inspiration. On Wednesday, the Brazilian national team was due to receive copies of a bestselling collection of personal prayers, The Prayer: Rise with Jesus (News, 19 June), hand-delivered by the author, Stefania Leão, and the illustrator, Alexander Debelov, before the team played against Scotland in Miami.

DIOCESE OF NEWARK/ENSHost-city ambassadors, including (centre) the Revd Asa David Coulson, Rector of Grace Church, Nutley, in the diocese of Newark, stand ready to greet visitors to the World Cup  

Brandon Thomas-Asante, a centre forward for Coventry City, who is playing for Ghana in the World Cup, said this week, before his side faced England: “Our best hope is in Jesus Christ, but we want to encourage people in the way we apply ourselves.”

In an article published on the Church Times website on Monday, to mark Windrush Day, the C of E’s Director for Racial Justice, Canon Guy Hewitt, writes that he feels “excitement and unease” during national football tournaments.

“I love the game. I hope that England wins,” he writes. “But, as the St George’s flags go up on streets and in shop windows, I notice something else: a quiet anxiety among many ethnic communities who have called this country home for generations.

“The flag isn’t the problem. The problem is what some people are trying to make it mean. Far-Right groups have claimed the cross of St George as their own, and, for many of us, that association is hard to shake.”