WORLD CUP . . . SEX BANS AND OTHER TIDBITS

Israeli researchers say soccer players should abstain from sex for six to eight days before a game for optimal performance, according to findings released on the eve of the World Cup . . . Defending champ Germany has already taken such advice to heart, banning wives and girlfriends from the team's hotel in Chicago; but in Detroit, Swiss team coach Roy Hodgson lightened up and lifted a sex ban on his players . . . Germany's national football team was also forbidden by its doctors to use their U.S. hotel swimming pool lest Chicago's ozone harm their lungs . . . Norway's state television has begged more than 2,000 workers to suspend a strike -- just for a day -- to let soccer-mad fans watch the World Cup Finals .