(Image source from: Is it right to ban players from having sex during the World Cup?})

To sex or not to sex - this is one of the burning questions during the World Cup!

For the World Cup players, all the action goes down on the field. But off field, most are banned from having any action. That's right! The coaches of many leading countries ban their players from getting laid during a tournament to improve their teams' performances.

While certain nations like Germany, Spain, USA, Australia, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Uruguay and England allow their teams to hop in bed with whomever they want, there are other nations like Russia, Chile, Mexico, and Bosnia and Herzegovina who are entirely banned from having sex during World Cup.

Again for some other teams, the “sex” part is a little complicated like France where players can only have sex if it doesn't last all night (stamina!), while the Nigerian team can have sex if it's with their wives (sorry, no girlfriends). As for Brazil, a country known for hot bods, Brazilian players are allowed to get jiggy with it as long as it's not acrobatic (come again?).

Now the big question is, it is fair to lay a law on the players' sexual activities ahead or during the tournament?

It seems many coaches fear that that fooling around during tournament time can distract their players or injure them, shrinking their performance as well as potential.

While defenders assert that such rules are in the best interest of the players, given the amount of energy spent playing and handling the pressure on field, there is no scientific evidence to back this up.

Way back in 1995, a study monitored the performances of 11 men, some of whom had sex before hopping on to a treadmill. And the results revealed that there was no difference in performances of those who got laid and who didn't.

Notwithstanding the lack of hard facts, both coaches and fans go bananas surmising whether sex helps or hinders athletes performances and setting the limitations on their bedroom activities.

For your information, just before Netherland's first match against the defending champions Spain, Dutch coach Louis van Gaal allowed the wives and girlfriends of the players to visit them in the hotel, as the coach believed that a bit of positive energy and a happy temperament can go a long way to booat the morale of his players. And the way Robin Van Persie and Arjen Rebben shredded the Spanish defense is a testimony to that.

AW: Suchorita Choudhury