Whatever Puma were smoking in the early 2000s when designing the Cameroon kits, we want to try it.
In the space of two years, the Central African side wore two very unique kits with extremely unorthodox design features.
2002 – defying norms
Cameroon headed to Mali with the aim of defending their African Cup of Nations title, and once again became Kings of Africa by defeating Senegal 3-2 on penalties in Bamako.
Arsenal invincible Lauren, the late Marc-Vivien Foé and a young Samuel Eto’o all featured in a campaign of pure dominance, with Cameroon not conceding a single goal throughout the whole tournament.
They looked good doing it too, donning a sleeveless, basketball jersey-style kit in the blazing Mali sun. The red shorts and yellow socks paired with the green top formed the colours of the Cameroon flag.
FIFA however weren’t so keen on the strip, and banned it prior to the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan.
Comedically, Puma added jet black sleeves, enabling the kit to maintain its vest-like design, with FIFA spokesperson Keith Cooper snarkily saying “you can always expect something different from Cameroon, not only in terms of their shirts.”
2004 – defying FIFA
Just two years later and Cameroon were back to it, this time releasing a ‘onesie’ style kit, in which the shirt and shorts were stitched together.
FIFA officials watched in disbelief as Cameroon played their entire African Cup of Nations tournament in the kit, despite strict instruction to revert to a normal kit from the quarter final onwards.
The Cameroon football federation Fecafoot were fined $154,000, with FIFA wasting no time with their sanctioning.
Puma defended their design, and only begrudgingly changed the strip after FIFA threatened them with a six-point World Cup qualifying group point deduction, which would have all but ensured they missed out on Germany ‘06.
In the aftermath, FIFA added the word ‘separate’ to the Laws of the Game that outlined the compulsory equipment of a football kit.
Cameroon have been relatively well behaved since then when it comes to kit designs, which is a shame because we think Bryan Mbeumo would pull off a one-piece kit with ease.
