World Cup debutants will wear collectable patches on shirts

Players making their first tournament appearance at this summer’s FIFA World Cup will wear a debut patch on their shirts.

Players like Erling Haaland and Lamine Yamal will make their World Cup bows this summer – as will every player in the Scotland squad.

It is part of a new licensing deal that will see Fanatics replace Panini as FIFA’s partner for trading cards and stickers from 2031.

Patches will be removed from shirts after a player debuts and become collectible tops trading cards.

The World Cup patch design has not been finalized yet.

Debut patches have been used in US sports for several years and were introduced to Major League Soccer in 2024.

FIFA has not confirmed the full details of how the process will work for the 2026 World Cup, but it is expected to work similarly to MLS – which also has a licensing deal with Fanatics.

Each team is provided with a stock of debut patches, which are glued to a player’s shirt on the upper-right chest before their debut.

After the game, the patch is removed and placed on a unique collectible trading card.

The card is then sent to Topps to be inserted into a Chrome MLS hobby box, which retails for around $120 (£88). Each hobby box contains 21 packs of four cards. Two cards in each complete box are unique autograph cards.

MLS cards are autographed by the player, although it has not been confirmed whether this will be the case for the World Cup.

Since the Fanatics contract doesn’t start until 2031 they won’t be available to buy until after this date.

This means there will be a huge stock of debut cards from the 2026 and 2030 finals to create a set of World Cup collectibles.

This summer’s event can produce over 600 cards.

Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan will make their first appearances.

Austria, Czech Republic, DR Congo, Haiti, Iraq, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Scotland and Türkiye return after long absences.

Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ivory Coast return for the first time in 12 years and will have almost full squads.