England’s goalkeeper Gordon Banks was in top form during the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, making a famous save against Brazil’s Pele. He later became ill roughly a day before the quarter-final against West Germany, with a team doctor diagnosing acute gastroenteritis and ruling him out. England lost 3-2 after extra time, and Peter Bonetti replaced Banks in goal. Some people believed Banks had been poisoned to influence the tournament outcome, linking the claim to Brazil’s military dictatorship and alleged American involvement. Banks’s grandson Ed Jervis said Banks always suggested something “dodgy” happened and questioned why he got so ill. A family friend’s dinner conversation planted the CIA idea, which Jervis initially dismissed but later found plausible when reviewing details with investigative journalist Gabriel Gatehouse.
"“Roughly a day before the quarter-final, he gets ill with food poisoning,” Gatehouse explained. “The team doctor diagnoses him with acute gastroenteritis and he rules him out of the game.”"
"“The rationale was that the military dictatorship in Brazil wanted a popularity boost, the Americans wanted to keep them in place and so they helped them win the World Cup. That was the allegation,” Gatehouse said."
"Jervis said his grandad always used to say “something dodgy went on”, adding: “He’d say: 'I don't know what, but why did I get so ill?'” A conversation over dinner with a family friend planted the idea the CIA might have been involved."
"Jervis at first dismissed it as “nonsense”, but when he started looking into it with Gatehouse, found “there was something to it”. “All of a sudden, you start to put the pieces together and it becomes plausible.”"
Read at www.bbc.com
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