Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What mysterious event is linked to Gordon Banks and the 1970 World Cup?
Alice, have you ever wondered why England haven't won the World Cup in 60 years? Matt, too soon. Too soon. Now, you might think it's because of superstar players or wags or bad managers, but actually, no. It might have all begun with the CIA sabotaging the England team and in the process laying a curse on English football. That was actually going to be my first guess.
Well, it would have been a good one because that is an actual theory and it's a story Audible have investigated in their new podcast, Foul Play. Would you please tell me some more about that? Well, Alice, 60 years ago, England were the best. And obviously we won the World Cup in 1966. Our star player was a goalkeeper. Some say the best goalkeeper ever, Gordon Banks.
And we were on track to win again at the following World Cup in Mexico in 1970. But then, mysteriously, Gordon Banks fell ill before a crucial match and England crashed out. And thus began the 60 years of hurt. Right, mysteriously fell ill. It's also called a really bad hangover.
And that is what many thought, including Gabriel Gatehouse, an investigative journalist, when he was told that the CIA might have been behind Gordon Banks' sudden illness. But then he began looking, and three years later, here he is with his new podcast, Foul Play. Here's an extract from episode one.
Put here the name of your grandfather, please.
My name's Ed, and I feel like I'm having a sort of out-of-body experience right now.
Banks Gordon?
Yes.
Let me check.
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Chapter 2: Who is Gabriel Gatehouse and what role does he play in this investigation?
So it feels pretty surreal right now to be in Mexico, in an old prison, digging through the archives of the Mexican secret police.
Maybe we can find something. You're putting Gordon Banks' name into a secret database.
I'm here with Gabriel Gatehouse, an investigative journalist, and we're looking for evidence that more than 50 years ago, in the summer of 1970, spies were surveilling my granddad.
Yes, they have photos of your grandfather. What? Yeah. Can we see? Yeah.
My granddad wasn't a secret agent. He had no links to Mexico. His name has got no business being in this archive. My granddad was a football player. Maybe you call it soccer. He was quite famous, actually.
And he almost made it, and if it hadn't been Gordon Banks in that goal, he would have done it.
Gordon Banks, the world's number one goalkeeper. Gordon Banks, my granddad, was the Manning goal in 1966, the one and only time England have ever won the World Cup.
Well done, Gordon Banks, the hero of England.
Some argue my granddad was the greatest goalkeeper to have ever played the game. So what the hell is his photo doing in the archives of the Mexican secret police?
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Chapter 3: What evidence suggests the CIA may have sabotaged Gordon Banks?
But this one, I've been dragged into against my better judgment. Because at first sight, it seems absurd. Couldn't have happened. Unless it did. In which case, it might just be the craziest story I've ever heard. It all started three years ago when a stranger comes up to me. You're Gabriel Gatehouse, aren't you? He says, I loved your podcast.
This happens to me from time to time, ever since I did a series about conspiracy theories in America. Thanks, I say. Who are you?
It's me, Ed. I tell Gabriel I've got a story for him about football. Let me stop you right there, I say.
I'm not into football. I don't know anything about it. But Ed won't let it go. Have you heard of Gordon Banks, he asks.
Gordon Banks, another trophy for his sideboard. John Mahoney, the substitute.
Goalkeeper, right? National hero from a bygone age, when the England men's football team still won things. Yeah, even I've heard of Gordon Banks. So Ed starts telling me this story about his famous granddad and the World Cup. But not 1966, the one we won. No, the next one, in Mexico, in 1970. England were the defending champions, Ed says, one of the favourites to win, but Grandad fell ill.
Food poisoning, apparently. Gordon Banks was too sick to play. He recovered a few days later, but England crashed out and English football was never the same again.
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Chapter 4: How did Gordon Banks' illness impact English football history?
We didn't even qualify for another World Cup for another 12 years. And even then, it seemed like a curse had been laid on the national team.
We're talking about the men's team here. The women are doing just fine. Anyway, Ed says his granddad always suspected his illness was no accident. I was nobbled, he'd say. He thought someone had got to him all those years ago, though who or how to his dying day, he never knew. Ed never really took it seriously.
We would just sort of laugh it off and kind of, oh yeah, all right, Grandad won too many tacos for some dodgy street vendor or whatever it was.
But after Gordon Banks' death, Ed says, someone tells him, your Grandad was poisoned to sabotage England.
Chapter 5: What conspiracy theories surround the CIA's involvement in sports?
And the plot was masterminded by the CIA. The CIA? I may not know much about football, but I do know about conspiracy theories, and this looks like a classic. I mean, why would the CIA want to poison an English footballer? Something about the Cold War and supporting a military dictatorship in Brazil, Ed said. It sounded kind of ridiculous.
I told him I'd look into it, thinking I'll debunk this straight away. Well, three years later, here I am. And the deeper I dig, the stranger it gets.
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Chapter 6: What personal connections does Ed have to this story?
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