In sports, it is a maxim - often false - that having sex before a critical game is a bad omen. For four Israeli soccer players who had sex with girl friends or prostitutes before a team loss to Denmark last year, it could mean a purge from the national soccer team.
A committee of inquiry has recommended the four players be banned, the Associated Press reports. Appointed by the Israeli Football Association after a newspaper report that several players had entertained prostitutes at their hotel before the European Championship qualifying game last November, the committee says those players "are not fit to wear the national colors again."
The committee says the incidents didn't happen the actual night before the game, as Ma'ariv had reported, but it says some of the women who slept with the players in question were girl friends and not prostitutes. Notwithstanding, committee spokesman Yariv Ben-Eliezer says those who slept with their girl friends should still be barred.
The players' names have not been released, and the Israeli Football Association has not yet anounced whether they will follow the committee's recommendations, the AP says.
