Business of Sport/Daire Whelan: Is there any stopping Lebron James, heir to Michael Jordan's crown of NBA king - on and off the court? The 19-year-old has been named rookie of the year, becoming the youngest recipient of the award. And to boot, the James name just keeps on raking in the bucks:

- The attendances for his team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, increased to an average of 18,288, nearly 7,000 more per game than the season before, and the 59 per cent season-to-season attendance increase is the largest in NBA history for a team that did not change venues.

- the Cavaliers grossed an additional $12 million in ticket sales this season, up to $30.1 million from $18.1 million last season.

- the team sold out 16 games in total, the third-highest amount in franchise history.

- James's presence this year was worth at least an additional $18 million in other revenues, sports business analysts estimate.

- Radio listenership more than doubled, local television ratings increased by 300 per cent and, thanks to James's best-selling jersey, the Cavaliers ranked fourth overall in the league in apparel sales.

Approximately $72 million worth, or 1.6 million jerseys, featuring James's name and number 23 have been sold since they went on sale last June.

If anyone thought FIFA'S deduction of six World Cup qualifying points from Cameroon's campaign for the 2006 World Cup was about their unique Puma one-piece strip, think again. With Sepp Blatter, everything is calculated and connected.

What he calls the "football family" is really his family and it just so happens the rival to his FIFA presidency two years ago was a certain Cameroonian and president of CAF (Africa's football federation), Issa Hayatou. One has to wonder how much of a footballing decision was the six-point deduction and how much was political payback by Blatter.

The unique all-in-one short-and-jersey kit designed by Puma was first worn by Cameroon at the qualifiers for this year's African Nations Cup and for the knockout stages of the tournament - despite warnings by FIFA at that stage, but Puma claimed it couldn't come up with an alternative kit in such a short time.

FIFA promised action on what they believed to be a blatant flouting of the rules and, in addition to the severe six-point reduction, they also fined the country's football association $154,000.

According to FIFA, Cameroon's actions were a "serious infringement", related to "Cameroon's failure to comply with the equipment requirements of Law 4 of the Laws of the Game during the African Cup of Nations 2004 in Tunisia.

"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 knockout phases."

But now Puma have come out fighting and are threatening legal action. Their representative Horst Widmann has denied any wrongdoing and asserts that FIFA had, in fact, agreed to the gear being used.

"We have done nothing wrong," Widmann says. "We showed the uniforms to both FIFA and CAF, and nobody told us it was not allowed."

While it was FIFA's deputy general secretary, Jerome Champagne, who was informed of the kit, the problem, it appears, lies in the fact that Blatter was not told.

As Widmann puts it: "It is not Puma's problem that Jerome Champagne didn't inform Blatter about that. That is an internal problem for FIFA."

The plot thickened when it emerged that Issa Hayatou also personally sanctioned the disputed kit's use.

According to Widmann, "there was a final decision made by CAF in Tunisia, after a press conference with Mr Blatter, and again Mr Hayatou decided we could use the shirts."

Is it too much to suspect that the power plays of the 2002 FIFA presidency are still being played out? How else can one legislate for the harshness of the sanction taken against the Cameroonian football association? Especially in light of the fact that the Law 4 quoted by FIFA doesn't appear to have been contravened.

Law 4 of the Laws of the Game states: "The basic equipment of a player is a jersey or shirt, shorts, stockings, shinguards, footwear," and for Puma that is enough to threaten legal action against FIFA.

But FIFA and Cameroon have a history - not least that between Hayatou and Blatter. Post USA '94, the Cameroon government disbanded their football federation and imposed their own regime but FIFA, in response, suspended them until a democratically elected administration was installed and in 1996 they were only allowed compete in the African Cup of Nations under a special dispensation.

In 1998, the president of their football federation, Vincent Onana, was in a prison cell on charges of ticket fraud while France were winning the World Cup and once again Cameroon were suspended by FIFA.

Now though, despite the strong language from Puma, Cameroon appear to be accepting their punishment: sports minister Bidoung Mkpatt said Cameroon "probably deserved the sanction" but pointed out that as one of FIFA's goals is to promote football around the world, "they should show some pity".

It is unlikely Puma will back down but they may have to, especially if they were to recognise the political reality of the situation and the poor standing that Cameroon have with football's world governing body. Things would have been a lot different if it was Issa Hayatou who had won the presidency.

bizofsport@eircom.net

239.50 Puma's share price continues to rise - up 33 per cent from January.

"Unless a man believes in himself and makes a total commitment to his career and puts everything he has into it - his mind, his body, his heart - what's life worth to him?"

Good to see an immediate smoking ban at Croke Park has been introduced by the GAA. This column has long been a proponent of its introduction in sports stadiums in this country.

Although there are no plans to extend it to other GAA grounds and despite the fact the IRFU have no immediate intention of following the GAA's lead, it is to be hoped the culture of anti-smoking will have sufficiently evolved to see smoking banned in the redeveloped Lansdowne Road.

There have been calls before from medical experts and the Irish Sports Council for a ban to be implemented at sports grounds but, as has been shown by the GAA, the initiative needs to come from sports organisations themselves.

In the UK, smoking is only banned at Premiership grounds in consultation with local authorities, but as with the smoking ban in restaurants and pubs introduced here, the GAA's bold stance will be closely monitored by other sport organisations - and not just in Ireland.

1 Number of sport grounds in Ireland that have banned smoking - how many more this time next year?