Cameroon Try and Reverse Bodysuit Ban

Trying to overturn a lack of success that may cost Cameroon a spot inside the 2006 World Cup, the maker from the team's bodysuit uniforms has launched a campaign from the decision by soccer's governing body.

FIFA fined Cameroon $155,000 last month for wearing the one-piece uniforms in the African Cup of Nations. More significantly, it penalized Cameroon six points inside the second round of African qualifying for the 2006 World Cup.

The Indomitable Lions, who start play next month, are categorized with Egypt, Ivory Coast, Libya, Sudan and Benin, and only the first-place team advances to the 32-nation field.

Cameroon and Puma AG say they received approval to put on the uniforms from CAF, the governing body of African soccer, and call FIFA's penalty "unjustified and away from proportion."

Cameroon appealed FIFA's decision, and Puma threatened legal action.

"The appeal is just not something we intend to drag out," FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren said Tuesday. "There needs to be some meeting and decision quite soon."

FIFA rules state players are to use "a jersey or shirt" and "shorts." FIFA contends this implies separate garments. Puma contends the policies tend not to prohibit a one-piece uniform.

"We'll try to convince FIFA that it's not the proper decision," Puma spokesman Ulf Santjer said.

Santjer declined to express simply how much the company spent designing and promoting the uniforms.

To protest FIFA's ban, Puma ran full-page newspaper ads this week in great britan, France, Germany, Italy, holland along with the Paris-based International Herald Tribune. Puma also opened an online site Sunday to imply its case.

 Two-time Olympic gold medalist Pyrros Dimas of Greece will wear a weightlifting suit featuring slick material for the thighs and sticky material for the chest, specially designed to help Dimas when he hoists the barbell past his slipperly thighs and up to his chest--where the bar will stick--and then over his head in the clean-and-jerk.

Adidas also created assymetric shoes for fencers, who stand using their feet perpendicular together and require padding and support around each shoe. For wrestlers, adidas developed a shoe with a round, cupped sole that prevents the shoe from being swallowed from the soft mat which wrestlers compete. Reebok, meanwhile, flaunts its "Hydromove" technology, a moisture-management system told accelerates moisture dispersion and evaporation.

Nike spokeswoman Katherine Reich said several teams of scientists and apparel experts devoted themselves to the 2000 Olympics. Kennedy said adidas started its "Sydney Project" back in 1996. Speedo hurried its Fastskin swimsuit into circulation among elite athletes so that it might have a location on the Sydney stage.

"For this Olympics, you've a number of technologies that are very visual," Reich said. "That's what's brought the eye. We continue taking care of our innovations and products so the best athletes on the globe could be at their very best."

Elite athletes, eager for the monetary advantages and publicity connected with breaking records, either readily embrace the modern technology or are scared into while using the various so-called breakthrough products. "They all would like to try one, plus they all are looking for one, simply because they know it is a disadvantage not have it," said U.S. Olympic women's swimming coach Richard Quick. "If they allow somebody to go faster, they have got to be."