Astonishing claims that England goalkeeper Gordon Banks was secretly poisoned by the CIA before the 1970 World Cup have resurfaced after a three-year investigation. Banks fell ill just before England's quarter-final against West Germany in Mexico, missing the match that the Three Lions lost. Banks always attributed his upset stomach to a dodgy bottle of beer.
Investigation Revives Conspiracy Theory
Former BBC reporter Gabriel Gatehouse has been investigating the incident and believes the CIA may have been responsible. The US foreign intelligence agency was allegedly keen for Brazil to win the tournament for geopolitical reasons. Gatehouse said: "When Gordon Banks's grandson, Ed Jervis, first came to me with this story, I thought it sounded like a classic conspiracy theory. But after a three-year investigation that has taken me from Stoke-on-Trent to Mexico, via archives of declassified government documents in Britain and the US, I'm beginning to think this might have actually happened."
The story appears to originate with football writer Brian Glanville, who wrote in his 2007 book: "Though not, I hope, an addict of conspiracy theory... I have steadily come to believe that Banks was the victim of sabotage." Glanville reported that journalist Bob Oxby had a cousin, US Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri, who allegedly told Oxby: "That was the CIA! You don't think we were going to let England beat Brazil, do you?"
Geopolitical Context
Gatehouse explains the rationale: "It was the height of the cold war; Latin America was a proxy battleground between the US and the Soviet Union. In 1964, the administration of Lyndon Johnson had helped instal a military dictatorship in Brazil as a bulwark against the spread of socialism. By 1970, the regime felt it needed a popularity boost." He discovered a declassified CIA memo dated February 1971 that assessed the Brazilian dictatorship and noted how President Médici "skillfully managed to associate himself with Brazil's victory at the World Cup soccer games last summer."
Banks fell ill at the Guadalajara Hilton after celebrating England's win over Czechoslovakia with "quiet drinks." England's team doctor Neil Phillips believed the illness was due to a lapse in food discipline, possibly from a sandwich or unpeeled fruit. Historian Grant Bage, biographer of England manager Sir Alf Ramsey, said: "For years there have been rumours about CIA involvement. Alf always had concerns about what happened to Banks - concerns previously labelled 'paranoid'. I am so glad a reputable journalist now has investigated this."
Banks missed the game, and his replacement Peter Bonetti was blamed for conceding a goal. Banks, a Stoke City legend, died in February 2019 at age 81.
