After witnessing his teenage daughter suffer a third concussion while playing soccer, Jeff Skeen of San Diego developed a padded headband in 2002 that he believes can absorb blows from other players, the ground or a goal post.

The soccer headgear covers the crown of a player's head, not the top.

But when Skeen insisted his daughter wear the headband at a soccer match, he said the referee prohibited her from playing with it on. That's when he launched his campaign for mandatory soccer headgear and started Full90 Sports, a San Diego-based soccer headgear company.

Reports find that head injuries are a growing problem in soccer. A Consumer Product Safety Commission study found that soccer contributed to an estimated 14,465 head injuries that were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms in 2004. That is up from 9,269 head injuries in a similar study in 1995.

For several years, the issue of soccer headgear was clouded by concerns that heading the ball could also cause head injuries. But recent studies by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the University of Pennsylvania found no link between brain injuries and routine ball heading.

Once the focus turned to preventing accidental head collisions between players, the ground and the goal posts, soccer organizations softened their position on headgear.

Last January, the U.S. Soccer Federation, the governing body for soccer in the country, said the federation's medical committee had found "no evidence that wearing of this sort of headgear is beneficial to players, and is concerned that it might actually lead to more injuries."

But months later, the same federation released another statement, saying soccer headgear provides a "measurable benefit" in head-to-head impacts. The statement added: "There are still many unanswered questions -- most importantly, the extent to which this sort of headgear diminishes the risk of concussions, if at all."

The U.S. Soccer Federation and the American Youth Soccer Organization permit players to wear headgear at their own discretion.

Rick Davis, AYSO's national director of programs, said the youth soccer league was concerned about head injuries. But he said the league must first see conclusive evidence that soccer headgear prevents head injuries before it can consider making headgear mandatory.

He said some critics believed headgear could give players a false sense of invincibility.

"It may be a matter of time before some conclusive study or information comes forward that says, much like shinguards, headgear provides some form of protection," he said.