F.I.F.A. World Cup 1998 - Stamp Issue

On the 10th June 1998, MALTAPOST plc will issue a set of three stamps and a souvenir sheet featuring the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

The stamps are being issued in the following values: 6c, 16c, 22c and all three stamps depict football action. The three stamps are also available in a Souvenir Sheet format. The stamps are designed by Richard Caruana, and are printed by Printex Limited.

France, one of the Founder Members of the International Football Federation (FIFA), will host this year's FIFA World Cup with a record number of 32 nations taking part, divided into eight Preliminary Round Groups. This will be the 16th edition of the important world Football event, held every four years, with Uruguay winning the inaugural competition for the Jules Rimet Trophy, held in Montevideo in 1930.

Sixty-four matches will be played within a period of one month in ten different stadia, scattered all over France (Paris 2, Lens, Lyons, St. Etienne, Marseille, Montpellier, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes).

The Inaugural Match of the France '98 World Cup will be played on Wednesday, 10 June, at the magnificent Stade de France Stadium with seating accommodation for 80,000 spectators. The current holders and fourth-time winners of the competition, Brazil and outsiders Scotland will be the protagonists of an interesting Group A encounter.

The Final will also be played at the Stade de France in Paris, on Sunday, 12th July 1998, with a 1900hrs (GMT) kick-off.

THE ARTIST

Richard J. Caruana was born in 1946. His love for aircraft and art were combined when he started to illustrate aviation books for Italian publishers in 1967, and later in England, a career which, since then, has made him a household name with aviation enthusiasts around the world.

Apart from his aviation illustrations for international publication houses, Richard J. Caruana has also twelve aviation books to his credit as an author. His art has been exhibited in galleries and museums in Malta, England, the former Czechoslovakia, Belgium, and the United States. He has also produced interior decoration designs for numerous private and commercial clients, among which were the offices of the Malta International Airport, at Gudja and the George Cross Theatre, in Valletta.

Caruana has designed 17 sets of stamps, including Malta's first computer-designed postage set which commemorates the Games of the Small Nations of Europe, issued in 1993.

He is now involved very actively in audio visuals.