FIFA offical gives skimpy fashion tip

LONDON -- Here's a fashion tip sure to make female soccer players uncomfortable: The sport's chief suggests they slip into something a little tighter on the field.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said women should consider wearing more revealing uniforms, such as skimpier shorts, to bring more attention to the game. At least one top player called the advice "ridiculous" and "irresponsible."

Blatter said women's soccer needs different sponsors from the men's game and should try to attract fashion and cosmetics companies by featuring "more feminine uniforms."

"Tighter shorts, for example," Blatter told the Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick. "In volleyball the women also wear other uniforms than the men. Pretty women are playing football today. Excuse me for saying that."

The suggestion by Blatter raises an issue that has confronted women's sports -- particularly tennis and golf -- for some time. Do the players need to draw on their sex appeal to make their game more appealing to a mostly male audience, or should their athletic achievements stand on their own?

England goalkeeper Pauline Cope called Blatter's advice "typical of a bloke."

"To say we should play football in hot pants is plain ridiculous," she said. "It's completely irresponsible for a man in a powerful position to make comments like this."

FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren said Friday that Blatter never mentioned the word "hot pants."