Capello doesn't want his players to 'score' too often . . .
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World Cup 2010: No sex please, we're England footballers
Fabio Capello doesn't want his players to score too often
Emine Saner
Fabio Capello has limited players' access to wives and girlfriends. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images
The question about whether or not the UK's World Cup squad should lie back and think of England once more rears its head. Manager Fabio Capello has limited the access his players will have to their wives and girlfriends to one day after each game, with further restrictions should the team progress.
"There is a historic element that has become a kind of mythology in sport," says Greg Whyte, professor of applied sport and exercise science at Liverpool John Moores University. "The Ancient Greeks believed that sex was detrimental in the build up to the Olympics – that it sapped energy, lowered test-osterone and reduced aggression.
But research runs counter to this. There have been a few studies on sex before sport and they have shown it has no effect on performance. However, sleep quality is crucial in terms of performance and sex can enhance sleep, so therefore it may enhance performance." Unless it's preventing them getting any sleep.
Not all teams are facing a sex ban. Argentina's team doctor Donato Villani was reported in the Sun last week as saying: "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." It is very important, he notes, that "the action should not reverberate in the legs of the players." It appears that style, rather than sex, is the main concern. In Euro 2004, Croatia's players were told by team doctor Zoran Bahtijarevic that their love- making should "not involve any excessive sex".
"I certainly never found it had any effect on my performance," George Best once said, though he added: "Maybe best not the hour before." Take it from a man who knew.