--- title: World Cup 2014 Brazil: Teams That Banned Sex Are All Eliminated description: All of the teams that had strict rules against sex have been eliminated canonical: https://time.com/2947564/abstaining-from-sex-doesnt-help-you-win-the-world-cup/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-02T01:13:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:35.496Z og:title: World Cup 2014 Brazil: Teams That Banned Sex Are All Eliminated og:description: All of the teams that had strict rules against sex have been eliminated og:url: https://time.com/2947564/abstaining-from-sex-doesnt-help-you-win-the-world-cup/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d66f6a64b11ab85/69869a3bd0b6f2035e3051e1/451454622.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2854 og:image:height: 1605 og:image:alt: Netherlands v Mexico: Round of 16 - 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: World Cup 2014 Brazil: Teams That Banned Sex Are All Eliminated twitter:description: All of the teams that had strict rules against sex have been eliminated twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d66f6a64b11ab85/69869a3bd0b6f2035e3051e1/451454622.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Abstaining From Sex Doesn't Help You Win the World Cup > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jul 2, 2014 1:13 AM UTC  A dejected Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez of Mexico at the final whistle during the Round of 16 match of the 2014 World Cup between Netherlands and Mexico at the Estadio Castelao on June 29, 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil. A dejected Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez of Mexico at the final whistle during the Round of 16 match of the 2014 World Cup between Netherlands and Mexico at the Estadio Castelao on June 29, 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil. Ian MacNicol—Getty Images  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jul 2, 2014 1:13 AM UTC If coaches are looking for some secret strategy for World Cup success, forbidding your players from engaging in sexual intercourse is not the answer. [Four teams publicly banned their players from having sex at the World Cup](http://time.com/2894263/world-cup-sex-soccer/), and all those teams have been eliminated. Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile and Mexico—all of which banned hanky panky—will not have a chance to play for the championship. To be fair, plenty of teams that didn’t ban sex (like Italy, Spain, Switzerland and England) have also been eliminated. So let’s not mix up correlation and causation. Teams that had more [creative rules about sex](http://time.com/2894263/world-cup-sex-soccer/) have had mixed results in the tourney. Brazil (which allows you to have sex, just not “acrobatic” sex), Costa Rica (which forbid sex in the first round but not the second) and France (where all night sex is forbidden) are all still in contention. Nigeria, where players can sleep with their wives but not their girlfriends, is out of the tournament. **MORE:** [World Cup: The Crazy Rules Some Teams Have About Pre-Game Sex](http://time.com/2894263/world-cup-sex-soccer/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2947564/abstaining-from-sex-doesnt-help-you-win-the-world-cup/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2947564/abstaining-from-sex-doesnt-help-you-win-the-world-cup/"},"headline":"Abstaining From Sex Doesn't Help You Win the World Cup","datePublished":"2014-07-02T01:13:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:35.496Z","description":"All of the teams that had strict rules against sex have been eliminated","url":"https://time.com/2947564/abstaining-from-sex-doesnt-help-you-win-the-world-cup/","keywords":["Living","Sex","World Cup"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d66f6a64b11ab85/69869a3bd0b6f2035e3051e1/451454622.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d66f6a64b11ab85/69869a3bd0b6f2035e3051e1/451454622.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Netherlands v Mexico: Round of 16 - 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil","caption":"Netherlands v Mexico: Round of 16 - 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil","creditText":"Ian MacNicol—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2947564/abstaining-from-sex-doesnt-help-you-win-the-world-cup/","name":"Abstaining From Sex Doesn't Help You Win the World Cup"}}]}] ```