Sex and the World Cup

By Ifeanyi Ibeh with agency reports



Does sex affect a footballer’s performance? This is, perhaps, the oldest and most fundamental question, not just in football, but across the whole spectrum of sports in general.

The Ancient Greeks, in the build up to the Olympics, were of the opinion that sex sapped energy. That is, it lowered testosterone, the hormone of both sexual desire and aggression.

England coach, Fabio Capello, obviously belongs to this school of thought as he has ordered his players not to indulge in sex throughout the duration of the World Cup in South Africa.

But not all teams heading to South Africa are facing a sex ban.

Fun-loving Argentines

Speaking last week in a radio programme in Argentina, the team doctor of the former world champions, Donato Vallani, said the players can have sex with their regular partners during the tournament.

“The players can have sex with their wives and girlfriends during the World Cup. Players are not Martians,” said Vallani on Radio Del Plata.

“But,” he added, “it should not be at 2 a.m. with champagne and Havana cigars. Sex is a normal part of social life and is not a problem. The disadvantages are when it is with someone who is not a stable partner or when the player should be resting.”

The doctor further noted that “the action should not reverberate in the legs of the players.”

This view of the Argentine doctor is similar to the order handed down to the Croatian team by their doctor, Zoran Bahtijarevic, six years ago, at the European Championships in Portugal, that their love-making should “not involve any excessive sex.”

A touch of samba

Brazil coach, Carlos Dunga, also has no problem with his players’ sex life, but was quick to add that the players would only be allowed to indulge in the act on their off days.

Speaking recently to the Brazilian media, Dunga, who captained Brazil to the world title in 1994, said:

“Not everybody likes sex, drinking wine or ice-cream,” before adding, “but on their off days, everyone is allowed to do what they want.”

Capello, however, begs to differ, as he will not permit any hanky-panky from his players at the World Cup. According to the English newspaper, the Daily Star, the 63-year-old former AC Milan, Juventus, and Real Madrid coach has ordered his players to stay away from sex for the duration of the tournament to ensure they are bursting with energy this time around.


Conservative Capello

Capello obviously still has fresh in his head the antics of the English team from the last World Cup tournament, where they became more famous for their off-the-field activities, before reaching the decision that has naturally not been received in good faith by the wives and girlfriends of the players.

England have not won the World Cup since 1966, and have failed to make it past the quarter finals in three consecutive tournaments, but Capello hopes to change all that and has gone further in his quest at turning it into a reality as he has ordered for surveillance cameras to be installed around the hotel, including inside the players’ rooms, to ensure his directives are carried out to the letter.

“I guess the coach only wants what is best for the team, but I think he has gone too far by placing cameras in their rooms,” said former Super Eagles defender, Nduka Ugbade, who has never participated at the senior World Cup, in an interview. He also said that “the players should be treated as adults, and not as children who don’t know what is right from wrong.”

Former Brazilian striker, Romario, once said: “Good strikers can only score goals when they have had good sex on the night before a match,” and the late Welsh forward, George Best, agreed, saying: “I certainly never found it had any effect on my performance. Maybe best not the hour before, but the night before makes no odds.” Former Arsenal and Sweden forward, Freddie Ljungberg, however, holds a different view as he says that having sex the night before a match makes his legs feel like concrete.

Nigerian example

There hasn’t been any further comments from other teams taking part in the World Cup, including the Nigerian team, but that does not in any way mean these teams have an apathy towards the subject. Rather, it could be the opposite.

“When we went to the World Cup, we were given permission to have sex,” said a former Super Eagles player who played under Clemens Westerhof at Nigeria’s debut World Cup appearance in 1994, but who pleaded anonymity as he was already married at the time of the tournament.

“Having sex takes away a lot of stress,” he continued in the interview with NEXTSports. “We played better as a result, and the coaches encouraged us to do it once in a while. A few of us were married, but in the absence of our wives we had to do it with some of the locals. But it was safe sex and we were warned not to tarnish the image of the country by making it too obvious.”

The Super Eagles were one of the best teams at that World Cup, but suffered a shock second round loss to eventual runners-up, Italy. Was it as a result of the players’ involvement in sex?

“It’s not the sex which tires out young players,” said Westerhof, in an interview published back in 2002 in the Observer Sport Monthly. “It’s the staying up all night looking for it.”

The year 2002 also saw the Super Eagles appearing at the World Cup co-hosted by Korea and Japan. Adeboye Onigbinde was the team’s coach, and he had a zero-level tolerance for sex at competitions.

“My players must get themselves prepared spiritually and this can be best achieved through total abstinence from women,” he said before the tournament. “They cannot afford to be distracted at such a critical period because women are agents of distraction.” Onigbinde’s approach didn’t work, however, as the Super Eagles failed to advance to the second round.

Scientific research

So does having sex actually improve a player’s performance on the field of play? Sportsmen have long perpetuated the theory that sex before competition saps energy. Former boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, reportedly wouldn’t make love for six weeks before a fight. Another boxer, Rocky Marciano, would excuse himself from the marital bed for months before a big bout; while Primo Carnera went further still by wrapping a rubber band around his penis when he went to bed.

Ten years ago, Ian Shrier, a sports medicine specialist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, published an editorial titled ‘Does Sex the Night Before Competition Decrease Performance?’ in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine. Shrier wrote that the “long-standing myth that athletes should practice abstinence before important competitions may stem from the theory that sexual frustration leads to increased aggression.” The abstinence tradition is particularly strong in power sports, such as boxing and football, in which aggression is considered a valuable trait, as it is believed that sexual indulgence draws testosterone from the body.

Emmanuele Jannini, a professor of endocrinology at the University of L’Aquila, Italy, is however, one of the most vocal opponents of this theory.

Endocrinology is the study of bodily secretions, and Jannini, who has studied the effects of sex on athletic performance, has found that sex in fact stimulates the production of testosterone, thus boosting aggression.

“After three months without sex, which is not so uncommon for some athletes, testosterone dramatically drops to levels close to children’s levels,” he said. “Do you think this may be useful for a boxer?”, he argued in an article posted on the National Geographic website.

But, he made some clarifications to the effect that sex varies among athletes.

“Some personalities need more concentration. In this case, sex may be a bad idea,” he said.

“For other athletes, a bit of extra aggression could be the difference” between winning and losing.

“In this case, I would suggest a complete and satisfactory sexual intercourse the evening before the game,” added the Italian.