CLOSE-UP: LIVE ISSUE/NIKE VERSUS ADIDAS - Sport's superbrands battle for football ownership. Adidas and Nike compete again to win fans during a World Cup.(Brief Article)

As the world gears up for the onslaught of football mania, the race is on for brand supremacy in the 2002 Fifa World Cup. And the battle to own football is likely to be a bloody one.

Against this ultra-competitive background, Adidas, an official sponsor, last week unveiled the global campaign it hopes will see off its arch-rival Nike. The campaign, by 180, features scientists at the Institute of Footballitis conducting experiments on football stars' obsession with the game.

Although the campaign follows the usual formula of casting big name players, its directors, Traktor, have ensured the players' enthusiasm comes across as a genuine love of the game. In applying humour, Adidas is attempting to make itself more accessible.

'It is tempting when you're involved to feel the need to be superior and on a pedestal,' Neil Simpson, Adidas' head of global brand concepts and advertising, says. 'But we are a sports brand at the event. We shouldn't take ourselves too seriously. The sport is the most important thing.'

The ads are in contrast to Nike's 'secret tournament' blockbuster by Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam. It features Eric Cantona as a ringmaster to eight teams of three players competing in an elite tournament. In typical Nike fashion, it has slick performances and high production values.

Nike's approach treats football with reverence - designed to appeal to the game's diehards. But it's one which Adidas believes is too exclusive and distant from the average football fan.

Nike's advertising gives the brand an aspirational positioning. However, it uses local marketing activity, such as Run London, the launch of Nike Town and the Scorpion KO tournament, to give its brand a more approachable feel. It is said that 90,000 teams have now signed up for the Scorpion KO tournament.