No game before games: The managers who banned matchday sex

Several managers have deemed it a distraction...

Varsha Jayaprasad
20th February 2023
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Football matches are built on the performance of the players on the pitch as well as the strategies formed by the managers on the back end. Football managers dedicate hours of their time to developing better strategies that can help their players perform better on the field. Strategies take place during the game and sometimes they happen before to prepare for an ideal result. One of the pre-game strategies put-forth by some football managers is to ban engaging in sexual activity before a game. Here are five football managers that have restricted players from having sex before a match.
Fabio Capello

Capello was the manager of England’s international football team. In preparation for the 2010 World Cup, Capello enforced the rule of refraining to have sex before a match. This was put in place to ensure that the players were not distracted. Unfortunately, this did not help England progress and they were knocked out in the round of 16.

Hernan Dario Gomez

Gomez was Panama’s coach for their first-ever World Cup at the 2018 FIFA tournament in Russia. According to defender Harold Cummings, the team was placed with set rules to follow, one of which included no sex during the tournament. This move did not seem to benefit the Panama team in any way. Panama lost all three group games, conceding 11 goals.

Miguel Herrera

The old team player for Mexico took on to be the manager of the team in 2014. Herrera banned engaging in sex and forbade the players to drink or consume red meat during the tournament.

“If a player cannot endure a month or 20 days without having intercourse, then you are not prepared to be a professional. Let’s play a World Cup, we’re not going to a party.”

Herrera tells Mexican newspaper Reforma

Unfortunately, these strict rules did not help Mexico progress through the round of 16.

Joachim Low

Former Germany Coach, Joachim Low put his players up to a no-sex rule during the 2018 World Cup. Germany had secured the world cup in 2014 and unfortunately could not retain their victory in 2018. Low had made sure players were not having sexual intercourse whilst in Russia and the players were not even allowed to meet their families either.

Pep Guardiola

The celebrated manager of Manchester City has put forth some strict rules for his team. Former Man City player Samir Nasri exposed to L’Equipe that one of Guardiola's first acts in charge was to ban players from having sex after midnight.

AUTHOR: Varsha Jayaprasad
Hi! I'm Varsha. I am an M.A. Media and Journalism Student at Newcastle University. I enjoy writing for the courier and I wish to be a full-fledged journalist in the future

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ReLated Articles
magnifiercross
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap