«There will be no sex in Brazil. If you want, you can also masturbate.” With this sentence, Bosnia-Herzegovina national coach Safet Susic made it clear before the 2014 World Cup what he thought of sex during the tournament: nothing. One After all, the World Cup is not a vacation tripyou are there to play football. Such strict announcements came from several trainers at the time. Mexico coach Miguel Herrera demanded of his players a month of abstinence. Anyone who can’t stand a few weeks without sex isn’t ready to be a professional, he told the newspaper Reforma.
Similar requirements applied to Russia and Chile in 2014. In the end, all four teams had one thing in common: they were eliminated before the quarterfinals. A sex ban, Time magazine dryly concluded at the time, was apparently not a secret recipe for World Cup success.
As a coach, how would you deal with the topic of sex before important games?
“Normal sex” is okay, acrobatics are not
Other coaches are more relaxed: Spain’s then coach Luis Enrique called the idea that players had to abstain from sex before games during the 2022 World Cup “a huge nonsense.” Of course, a wild party the night before is not a good idea. But sex that’s good for you? “Zero worries.”
France’s Didier Deschamps was also relaxed before the 2014 World Cup: “It depends on when, how and how much,” he said when the squad was announced. Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari saw it similarly. “Normal sex” is okay, he told the “UOL” portal – just no acrobatic experiments. Star coach Pep Guardiola did not ban sex, but is said to have made it subject to a condition. Former professional Samir Nasri once told the newspaper L’Équipe that on days off you were only allowed to have sex before midnight.
How does Murat Yakin feel about it?
During the current World Cup, the teams are sitting in the hotel for weeks, including our national team players. There is no known official sex ban in the Swiss national team. There’s a lot going on Swiss camp in San Diego Not anyway, because: No visits from family or partners are allowed in the team hotel in the first ten days before the opening game. The players are only allowed to see their loved ones after the games. “We have had good experiences with taking a short time for the family,” Yakin tells 20 Minutes.
Players see it pragmatically
The players themselves often sound more relaxed than their coaches. Ronaldo told the newspaper “Folha de S.Paulo” that he had had sex before games and was “much better” afterwards. However, when he won the world championship title in 2002, he was temporarily abstinent because no women were allowed in the team’s quarters.
According to the AFP, Brazil legend Romário gave the young Gabriel Jesus a brief piece of advice before the 2018 World Cup: have enough sex and be fully concentrated on match days. And Colombia’s icon Carlos Valderrama once told the newspaper “El Tiempo” that sex after a game is totally relaxing – especially after a defeat: “It doesn’t hurt, dude.”
This is what a sports psychologist says: “For some, sex is relaxing, for others it’s distracting.”
But does abstaining from sex actually do anything? The research answer is pretty clear: a blanket ban on sex can hardly be scientifically justified (see info box).
“From today’s perspective, there is little evidence that sex itself directly worsens performance,” says sports psychologist Jan Rauch to 20 Minutes. “Many previous sex bans were based on old performance myths and the desire to control preparation for competition as comprehensively as possible.”
Sex before the match: This is what the research says
However, one caveat remains: testing was always carried out in the laboratory, for example on an ergometer or on strength equipment. To date, no study has examined a real game under competitive pressure. There is currently a lack of reliable data for emergencies on the pitch.
From a sports psychology perspective, other factors are most important: “Sleep quality, emotional regulation, activation level, routines and mental focus are more relevant,” says Rauch. And that is highly individual: “Sexuality has a relaxing effect for some, while for others it could be more distracting.”
Rauch believes that Susic’s idea of allowing masturbation but banning sex has little biological basis. “It’s probably more about topics such as the outcome, sleep, media attention or possible distractions in the environment of a tournament, not primarily about the sexual act itself.” So it’s not sex that could cost you performance, but rather what can happen around it: lack of sleep, alcohol, stress, secrecy or broken routines.
Dr. Jan Rauch is a sports psychologist and lecturer at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. He has been supporting and advising individual athletes and entire teams for over ten years, from grassroots to junior to elite sports.
Rauch’s conclusion: In terms of sports psychology, there is no one ideal competition preparation for everyone. “Some consciously isolate themselves before a competition, others seek to exchange ideas with teammates or use visualizations,” he says. “It is crucial that athletes find their individual path.”
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Gloria Karthan (glo), has been working for 20 minutes since 2019. She is a member of the editorial board and head of the lifestyle team.
