Sex, Soccer and 2014 World Cup.

Sex, Soccer and 2014 World Cup
By Chido Nwangwu

Exclusive commentary for USAfricaonline.com, CLASSmagazine,  and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. Follow USAfrica at Facebook.com/USAfricaChido , Facebook.com/USAfrica247 and Twitter.com/Chido247 

USAfrica: As the 2014 World Cup soccer competition enters the decisive knockout phase with 16 national teams, the issue of sex and the soccer players is rising to the top, in a rather open way.

Shall we say, it’s been different strokes and choices for different teams and countries.  From Europe to Africa, the Nigerian national team’s position on sex has no restrictions if it is with your wife; and not with a girlfriend. While Nigeria, France, Brazil, the U.S and others have made it to the round of 16 teams – with their conditional qualification for sexual intimacy, the puritan, strictly no sex Iran and Bosnia-Herzegovina did not.

France’s former team doctor has frankly said that sex is “relaxing” for these players of soccer…. The German team allows some sex but not the night before a match. They qualified into the 16 teams showdown after beating the U.S by one goal.
The South American soccer stars of Costa Rica took a no sex stand, and have had commendable performance at the games.

USAfricaonline.com is informed that some of the players who had thoughts of the Brazilian ‘bonga bonga’ sessions had their carnal imaginations dashed. For example, Bosnia-Herzegovina manager Safet Susic made it very clear even before the team arrived that: “There will be no sex in Brazil. This is not a holiday trip, we are there to play football at the World Cup.”

Indeed, it was no holiday, and hopefully they heeded Susic’s no sex order. It’s a new country and the 2014 World Cup marked their first World Cup victory whereby they defeated Iran 3-1 but still lost in the group.

These social observations which we have tried to make about sex and the 2014 World Cup reflect a rather interesting mix of issues about whether sex motivates or distracts from a critical, high value competition.

I’ll take a step back to history to capture the thoughts of one woman who’s rated very sexy in her looks and dalliances. It’s the late model Marilyn Monroe who said “We are all born sexual creatures,thank God, but it’s a pity so many people despise and crush this natural gift.” I think people despise promiscuity, her promiscuity — including her romance with late President John F. Kennedy in 1960s.

It was Robert A. Heinlein, author of ‘The Cat Who Walks Through Walls’ who argued that “Sex, whatever else it is, is an athletic skill….”

Essentially, some of the coincidental outcomes of the soccer matches which I have cited will continue to raise the consequential, familiar question about how the human interest in sex impacts performance of other tasks, competitive sports and psychological needs of the competitors. Am I suggesting an advantage outcome for those who permit sex, or ‘some’ sex over those who do not? No!

By the way, let’s note that the multiple gold trophy winning hosts Brazil says something like: bring on the sex, as long as it is not (wink wink) “acrobatic.” Acrobatic??
From what we can see at the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilians mingle samba, soccer, acrobatics and ….       •Dr. Chido Nwangwu, moderator of the Achebe Colloquium (Governance, Security, and Peace in Africa) December 7-8, 2012 at Brown University in Rhode Island and former adviser on Africa business/issues to the Mayor of Houston, is the Founder & Publisher of Houston-based USAfrica multimedia networks since 1992, first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com; CLASSmagazine, AchebeBooks.com, the USAfrica-powered e-groups of AfricanChristians, Nigeria360 and the largest pictorial events megasite on the African diaspora www.PhotoWorks.TV . He was recently profiled by the CNN International for his pioneering works on multimedia/news/public policy projects for Africans and Americans    e-mail: Chido247@Gmail.com wireless 1-832-45-CHIDO (24436).

WHY I CELEBRATE THE LIFE AND WORKS OF NELSON MANDELA. By Chido Nwangwu  https://usafricaonline.com/2010/07/15/mandela-why-i-celebrate-his-life-works-by-chido-nwangwu/

and friendship hold lessons for humanity and Africans, the author Chido Nwangwu takes a measure of their works and consequence to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.”

He chronicles, movingly, his 1998 reporting from the Robben Island jail room in South Africa where Mandela was held for decades through his 20 years of being close to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.”I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that historic Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief executive of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when President Bill Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and came to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes  Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia specialist and founder of USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned U.S-based newspaper published on the internet, in his first book; he writes movingly from his 1998 reporting from South Africa on Mandela. http://www.mandelaachebechido.com/