A Colombian teacher may have ruined a pupil's World Cup before a ball has even been kicked after reportedly stealing their Panini football stickers.

In what must be every football-mad schoolboy's worst nightmare, local reports claim the heartless teacher stole the stickers so he could complete his own album.

Colombian newspaper El Espectador said a 13-year-old pupil in the city of Bucaramanga, central Colombia, reported the teacher after seeing him in the staffroom putting stickers he had allegedly confiscated from students who had been swapping them in class in a World Cup 2014 album.

"It's no way to give an example to young ones, taking their stickers away for your own benefit," a student's mother told local RCN radio.

According to Reuters, there has not yet been a formal complaint but the city's education authority was investigating the incident.

"According to the pupil, the teacher was confiscating various pupils' stickers arguing that a commercial market was being created that was distracting students from their academic work in the institution," El Espectador reported.