Africa Cup of Nations - Football Philately Special

The 2012 Africa Cup of Nations is now underway so to mark the start of the competition we'll have a look at the first football stamps issued by each of this years participants. To do so is to take a look back at African sporting history and see how sport including football helped forge independent nations free from the yoke of colonialism.

Fittingly it was one of this years co-hosts, Equatorial Guinea (as Spanish Guinea), who were the first nation of the sixteen participants to issue a football themed stamp. Commemorating the game of football a 5-value set all of the same design but in different colours was issued in 1955. The green 10 Peseta value is shown below on a first day cover postmarked in the capital Santa Isabel with a rather striking cachet.

First Day Cover - Spanish Guinea 1955

 Next up were Ghana who in 1959 produced a fabulous 5-value set to commemorate a wonderfully obscure West African football tournament called the Kwame Nkrumah Gold Cup,

First Day Cover - Ghana 1959

Sudan issued this colourful set, shown below with a first day Khartoum cancel, to mark the 1960 Olympiad in Rome.

Rome Olympics - Sudan 1960

Both the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso (as Upper Volta) issued stamp sets in 1961 that featured football alongside other sports, to mark the first African Friendship Games that were held in the former Ivory Coast capital of Abidjan. Niger also issued a sports set to commemorate the Friendship Games, but in 1962. The Games were a multi-sport tournament for the French-speaking African countries and was one of the forerunner tournaments of the current Pan African games.

African Friendship games - Ivory Coast 1961

African Friendship Games - Upper Volta 1961

African Friendship Games - Niger 1962

Co-hosts Gabon issued their first football stamp in 1962 as one of a 3-value general sports set.

Game of Football - Gabon 1962

Mali in 1963 became the first African nation to issue a football stamp that was unconnected to either a sporting tournament or part of a general sports set. Their 4-value Youth Week set included this football stamp.

Youth Week - Football - Mali 1963

The African Friendship Games of 1963 were hosted by Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Again a general sports set was issued that included the rather fine football stamp shown below. Only a day into the Games the organisers met with other African nations and founded the Pan African or All Africa Games and awarded the first games in 1965 to Brazzaville, Congo.

African Friendship Games - Senegal 1963

 Libya produced this rather uninspiring 6-value multicoloured sporting set to mark the 1964 Tokyo Olympiad.

Tokyo Olympics - Libya 1964

 In 1966 Guinea commemorated the 20th anniversary of UNICEF by issuing a 7-value set of childrens drawings. The 25f value featured a footballer.

20th anniversary of UNICEF - Football - Guinea 1966

The Mediterranean Games were first held in 1951 hosted by Alexandria, Egypt. In 1967 the games came to Tunisia who issued this stamp depicting the then newly built Stade El Menzah. The stadium was to later host the Africa Cup of Nations Final in 1994.

Mediterranean Games Tunis - Tunisia 1967

 Morocco issued an Olympic set in 1968 to commemorate the Mexico City Olympiad. Again as was common with general sports sets one of the stamps featured football. It is shown below on a first day cover cancelled in the capital Rabat.

Mexico Olympics - Morocco 1968

This one surprised me. Zambia were relative latecomers when it came to issuing a football stamp. One featured in this 1980 Olympic set issued to mark the Moscow Olympiad.

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 In 1981 Luanda, capital of Angola was chosen to host the second edition of the Central African Games. The hosts finished fourth in the football tournament that was won by Zaire.

Central Africa Games - Angola 1981

 Finally but not least we come to Botswana who first issued a football stamp in 1990. Bizarrely it was part of a Road safety set and featured children having a kickabout running out in front of a car.

Road safety - Botswana 1990

Phew so there we have it, that took some doing. The sixteen participants of this years Africa Cup of Nations and the first football stamps they issued. If you've enjoyed this post then please do take a few seconds to click the facebook like or Google +1 buttons or share on you favourite social network. Cheers.

2012 Africa Cup of Nations - Draw and Fixture List

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British Locals - Bernera Football Stamps

The Bernera Islands consisting of Great Bernera and Little Bernera are Scottish islands that lie off the north-west coast of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The Laird of the Islands maintains a local postal service and on occasion various issues are made available for tourists to purchase. The stamps which usually cost double that of normal United Kingdom postage rates have no postal validity within the UK. Mailed items from Bernera are required to have normal UK stamps affixed to enable transit within the UK.

In 1994 Bernera, along with other local postal services in the UK issued a set of stamps commemorating great moments in the history of the FA Cup. Six stamps were produced along with two souvenir sheets.

Blackburn Rovers 1928 and Arsenal 1993

Portsmouth 1939 and FA Cup Final 1923

Ryan Giggs 1994 and Lawrie Sanchez 1988

Spurs v Burnley 1962: Danny Blanchflower

Blackpool FA Cup Winners 1953

British Pathe Presents the FA Cup Finals

Red, White and Khaki: The Story of the Only Wartime Cup Final

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Stade Louis II Monaco - A Philatelic History

There have been two stadiums in Monaco with the name Stade Louis II. The first one, built in 1939, had surely one of the most visually appealing aspects in all of football, sat alongside the Mediterranean and underneath the looming hulk of the Rock of Monaco, it was officially inaugurated on 24 April 1939 and a stamp was issued to commemorate the event. The example below is postmarked Monaco-Ville, one of Monaco's traditional quarters and is the district that sits atop the Rock overlooking the stadium.

The Stade Louis II became the home of football's AS Monaco but also hosted other sporting events. It featured on more stamps issued in 1939 when the same shot was used on the 5-value University games set. Here they all on one cover again with a Monaco-Ville postmark.

The Stade Louis was to appear on more Monegasque stamps. It featured on one of the 1952 Helsinki Olympic games set and in 1963 one stamp depicting the stadium was part of a wonderful set issued to commemorate the Centenary of the Football Association. The stamps from this set were adeptly marketed and many philatelic items were produced. For example there are lots of different first day covers available all with different cachets and arrangements of the stamps. One example of the Stade Louis stamp on FDC can be seen at the link above whilst two more are shown below. The Stade Louis stamp from this set featured the club crest of AS Monaco and was overprinted with Championnat 1962-1963 Coupe de France to honour Monaco's league and cup double of that season.

In the early 1980s it was decided to build a new Stade Louis II. The site chosen for the new stadium was on land reclaimed from the sea in the Fontvielle district not far from the old ground. Two stamps were issued during the construction, one in 1982 and another in 1983 and when, in 1985 the ground was officially opened two more were issued.

A two part modern architecture set was issued in 1987 with one of the stamps featuring an aerial shot of the stadium. The FDC below has a striking cachet showing the stadium's arches albeit only four of the nine it actually has are used in the illustration.

Next up are a couple of stamps celebrating the success of AS Monaco. The club became French Champions for the sixth time in 1997 and this was commemorated with a stamp showing the club crest, the Stade Louis and a football with a map of Western Europe.

The red and white diamond background (fusily argent and gules) represents the heraldic colours of the House of Grimaldi which rules Monaco. This explains the date range shown in the right hand tab. 1297 is when the House of Grimaldi first took possession of Monaco making the AS Monaco title triumph of 1997 a rather nice 700th birthday present for the Principality.

AS Monaco were honoured with another stamp in 2000 when they again won the French title. This time only the iconoc nine arches of the stadium were present on the stamp. Finally to conclude our short philatelic history of the Stade Louis II we finish with the stamp that was issued in 2005 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the new stadium.

Further reading on Monaco ...

Grand Prix Automobile De Monaco Posters - The Complete Collection: The Art, the Artists and the Competition

Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City

The Football Stamps of Germany Part 2 - Fußball-Briefmarken aus Deutschland

Here's the second of our three part series on the football stamps of Germany. Our first look at German football stamps featured issues prior to German unity of 1990. In this article we're going to have a look at stamps issued since 1990 that commemorate achievements and milestones in German football history.

We'll start with current German champions Borussia Dortmund who won their first Bundesliga title in 1995 and then retained in 1996. Each title was commemorated with a stamp issue. Incidentally it was a Dortmund player, Friedhelm Konietzka, who scored the Bundesliga's first goal in the first minute of  the game against Werder Bremen on 24 August 1963.

Sepp Herberger helped give Germany her pride back in the post-war years. He was the national team coach who led his players into the 1954 World Cup Final. Their opponents Hungary, as invincible as any national football team has been then or since, were odds-on favourites to win but Herberger pulled off a tactical master stroke to engineer a 3-2 victory. The match became famous as the Miracle of Bern and Sepp Herberger, 'The Chief' a national hero. He was immortalised on a stamp in 1997 to commemorate 100 years since his birth. Here it is with the special 100 years postmark and below it a cover produced to celebrate his 80th birthday in 1977 with one of the 1974 World Cup stamps and postmarked with his Mannheim birthplace.

The German football champions of 1997, 1998 and 1999 were each rewarded with a stamp. Bayern Munich for 1997 and 1999,  and 1. FC Kaiserslautern for their 1998 title triumph which was unique in Bundesliga history. FCK were relegated to 2. Bundesliga in 1996, won promotion back to the Bundesliga in 1997 and immediately went on to win the national championship in 1998.

In 2000 a special stamp was issued to celebrate the centenary of the German Football Association. The Deutscher Fußball-Bund or DFB was founded in 1900 and is the largest single sports federation in the World. Eight years later another milestone in German football history was commemorated with a stamp. 100 years of German football international games, the first being in 1908 against the Swiss.

That concludes our second look at the football stamps of Germany. I hope you enjoyed that if you did then please show your appreciation by using the share buttons below. Stay tuned for Part 3 which will be with you in the next week or so.

Tor! The Story of German Football

Italian Football Federation and Il Grande Torino

Some recent additions to my collection have a very Italian theme. First up is an FDC of the 1973 Italian issue that commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Italian Football Federation which was founded in Turin on 15th March 1898. The L.25 value is beautiful in it's simplicity whilst the L.90 value with it's cartoon characters was I think the result of a children's competition.

Given that the FIGC was founded in Turin it is perhaps fitting that the next two items should commemorate Il Grande Torino. The AC Torino team of the 1940's is one of the greatest teams in Italian football history. A devastating air crash wiped them out in 1949 and 50 years on in 1999 Poste italiane issued two stamps to remember Turin's and Italy's tragic loss. Here they are as first day issues on maxicards.

The Football Stamps of Germany Part 1 - Fußball-Briefmarken aus Deutschland

As you would expect from a football-crazy country like Germany there have been many issues commemorating the great game. Surprisingly though most of these have been issued since German unity in 1990. The first part of our look at German football stamps focuses on stamps issued prior to reunification. There is one issue by the German Reich, three by the German Democratic Republic and three by the Federal Republic of Germany.

The first German football stamp to feature a football theme was issued as one of a four-part set to commemorate the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936.

Twenty years later the second German stamp to show a footballing scene was issued by the East German postal authorities. It was one of a set of four issued to commemorate the second German Gymnastic and Sports Festival (Turn- und Sportfest der DDR) held in Leipzig 1956.

In 1963 another East German football stamp was issued. This featured the German communist and anti-fascist resistance fighter Heinz Steyer. This was one of a set of five issued to remember sportsmen who had been victims of the Nazis and was in aid of the Concentration Camps Memorial Fund. Steyer played football for Rotsport and dedicated his life to fighting the Nazis. He served time in both prisons and concentration camps. In 1943 he was forcibly conscripted into the Criminal Division 999 (Strafdivision 999) of the Wehrmacht and sent to Greece. Here he worked from within the German Army aiding the Greek partisans supplying them with information and weapons to facilitate their resistance. He was arrested by the Nazis in 1944 and executed. The Heinz-Steyer Stadion in Dresden bears his name.

Five years later the East Germans issued another stamp featured a footballer. This was part of the 1968 Mexico Olympics set and was the last football stamp to be issued by the GDR.

The West German Bundespost issued a couple of stamps for the 1974 World Cup. A football design was included in the 1980 three-value sport set and  in 1988 an awful three-part set was issued to jointly commemorate the Seoul Olympics and the UEFA 1988 Euro tournament. Maybe the designers of these three stamps were trying to imitate what watching sport was like after overdoing it at the Oktoberfest. Whatever the reason this was the last German football stamp issued prior to the events of  die Wende in 1990.

So that concludes our first look at the football stamps of Germany. Parts 2 and 3 will be up in the next couple of weeks and will feature football stamps issued by a re-united Germany.

The Football Stamps of Germany Part 2

Tor! The Story of German Football