ZURICH, April 17: Cameroon will be forced to begin their qualifying for the 2006 World Cup already six points adrift after FIFA penalised the team for wearing their controversial one-piece strip at the last African Cup of Nations.

FIFA, world football's governing body, handed down a fine of US$154,300 on Friday and ruled that Cameroon be deducted six points when their qualifying round begins this June.

The decision will come as a shock to the African giants and will hamper their ambitions of qualifying for the finals in Germany from a group made up of Egypt, Ivory Coast, Libya, Sudan and Benin.

"We could pay the fine but with a penalty of six points, Cameroon cannot qualify for the 2006 World Cup," Jean-Paul Akono, the former coach of the Cameroon national youth team told AFP in the Cameroon capital Yaounde.

Theophile Abega, who sits on the commission of the African Football Confederation, said that Cameroon must fight to recover the lost points.

"The authorities and Fecafoot (Cameroon football federation) must appeal, otherwise we can't qualify for the World Cup. This really is a very heavy penalty for Cameroon."

The official response from Fecafoot was more restrained.

"All I can tell you is that the executive committee of Fecafoot is going to meet and a decision will be taken," said Pierre Nguidjol Nlend, the administrative director of the national team.

Cameroon, who were defending African champions, were given the nod by FIFA to play in the one-piece strip during the group phase of the African Nations Cup in Tunisia but the team continued to use the body-suits during the quarter finals, it said.

"The punishment was imposed as a result of Cameroon's failure to comply with the equipment of Law 4 of the game during the African Cup of Nations 2004 in Tunisia," FIFA said in a statement.

The statement added: "FIFA had shown leniency at the time for Cameroon's attire in the group round of the competition after the association had given assurances that the team would wear authorised playing kit in the knock-out phases.

"The Disciplinary Committee opened an inquiry on 13 February 2004 in order to rule on this serious infringement of the Laws of the Game and the associations failure to fulfil the pledge made to FIFA."

Cameroon sponsors Puma, who also supply Egypt and Tunisia, unveiled the controversial body-suits at the Nations Cup in January.

The Indomitable Lions' fashion statement, in the form of a sleeveless shirt, at the previous Nations Cup in Mali two years ago also landed them in hot water with the soccer authorities and it was later banned. -AFP