The CIA may have ‘poisoned’ England’s World Cup goalkeeper – Here’s what we know

"There is much more to the story than mere conspiracy theory."

The journalist Gabriel Gatehouse has spent the past three years investigating a claim that during the 1970 tournament, eventually won by Pele's Brazil side, the CIA spiked a beer that was later drank by Gordon Banks, leading to the illness that ruled him out of his nation's quarter-final loss to West Germany.

Gatehouse says that he was actually approached for the story by Banks' grandson, Ed Jarvis, and after gaining access to declassified government documents in Britain and the US, the journalist says he finally feels confident that there is much more to the story than mere conspiracy theory.

The first real piece of evidence is a quotation from the US senator for the state of Missouri from 1952 to 1976, Stuart Symington - a cousin of contemporary football journalist Bob Oxby.

Symington is reported to have allegedly discussed the issue of Banks' suspicious illness, with Oxby, to which the senator responded: "That was the CIA! You don’t think we were going to let England beat Brazil, do you?”

While it's more than possible that Oxby, who has now passed away, made up the anecdote, there is evidence within Senator Symington's archive to suggest that he would have at least been well placed to speak on the activities of the CIA in 1970.

Gatehouse explains: "In the senator’s archive, I found evidence that Symington was close to successive CIA directors during the 1960s and 1970s.

"In one letter, William Colby, who ran the agency from 1973 to 1976, mentions that he briefed Symington, in person, on “a collection, made by our inspector general, of questionable activities in the agency’s past… much of which is still classified”.

"Symington’s papers provide no further details of what those “questionable activities” entailed. But Oxby couldn’t have known about that briefing. If he did make the story up, then he accidentally made up the perfect source."

Why would the USA have any interest in stopping England from winning the World Cup?

Any potential US interest in England's downfall all stems out of the Cold War, that was at its height during the late 1960s and into 1970, when the story takes shape.

Gatehouse details this, writing: "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 in the western hemisphere.

"By 1970, the regime had become increasingly repressive and felt it needed a popularity boost," and as Keir Starmer might be lucky enough to tell you at the end of the 2026 tournament, there is no greater uplift to national morale than a great football success.

Was Gordon Banks the only player impacted by alleged CIA disruption?

The supposed conspiracy against England then extends to another player who may have been held back from impacting the tournament for England, along with Gordon Banks.

At the centre of England's team were two key players, Banks and Bobby Moore, respectively the best goalkeeper and defender in world football. If the Three Lions were to retain the World Cup it would be down to those two men.

And yet, even before Banks was impacted with illness, Bobby Moore's preparations for the tournament were also disrupted by powers.

When the Three Lions arrived in Mexico, for the beginning of the World Cup, they did so without Moore, who had been arrested in the Colombian city of Bogata accused of stealing a bracelet.

Moreover, there is actual physical evidence to back up a sense within the English government, even before Banks' illness, there was some kind of plot to prevent a Three Lions victory.

Gatehouse's report makes referenece to "government documents, declassified in 2000 and held at the National Archives in Kew" that show fear of a "Latin American plot against British football”.

These were reportedly dismissed as being fanciful by officials in Whitehall at the time, however Gatehouse also claims that according to Keith Morris, — who was chargé d’affaires at the British embassy in Mexico City when Moore was arrested— "some suspected the allegations against Bobby Moore were a “'put-up job by Brazil'”.

It is could be possible that the two peculiar incidents may have been linked.

What actually happened to Banks?

“He thought it was damned odd that only he got ill, and very seriously ill,” says Robert Banks, Gordon’s son. “And none of the other players got even a little bit ill,” as reported in the Observer's original story.

The official line that has stood up to this point is that Banks got food poisoning, however two other pieces of evidence presented by Gatehouse stand to dispute this.

First, Banks' daughter, 12 at the time, says that when the family returned from Mexico they were "quarantined in the house for two weeks."

“We had these people running around the house with white coats on trying to take samples off us,” Wendy is reported to have added.

As part of the report, Gatehouse spoke to the director of public health for Stoke-on-Trent who said: "A two-week quarantine does sound surprising for food poisoning. If it was food poisoning.”

Then secondly, written records from the team's doctor, who seems to have said he had kept the entire squad under a very strict regime, so as to mitigate the risk of anyone picking up an illness.

The record is said to read: "No salads, unpeeled fruit, or ice cream was eaten… I advised the players never to be tempted to buy or eat anything from a stall or shop.”

Although the doctor did later say, "a sandwich, pieces of salad or unpeeled fruit, prepared by a Mexican, was, in my opinion, the most likely source of the infection,” in a memoir, the idea of a team leader like Gordon Banks being the only one impacted, and then later unconventionally quarantined, is certainly peculiar.

Later in the piece, Gatehouse also speaks to Bob Wallace, a retired CIA employee — and one time head of the Office of Technical Service (OTS), the CIA's "department for gadgets and disguises" Gatehouse adds – of 32 years, who said: "There’s no question that the philosophy within CIA at the time was that we needed to do some extraordinary things to counter the Soviets.

"The range of things that the CIA would consider doing had few limitations.”

Within its arsenal of poisons, according to an internal document reportedly viewed by the Observer, were listed: "Salmonella typhimurium (food poisoning) 10 grams; “Salmonella typhimurium (chlorine resistant) (food poisoning) 3 grams”; and “Staphylococcal enterotoxin (food poisoning) 10 grams”.

To this evidence, Wallace is said to have responded with the following: "I have never heard of the story about giving the case of the tummies to any goalkeeper for any soccer team any place in the world, ever.”

When asked if he was legally allowed to be truthful about the incident, Wallace then says: "I wouldn’t necessarily lie to you about it, but I wouldn’t address it.”

"I don’t know that you should infer anything. You should infer that at least Bob Wallace and maybe other people have said they don’t know anything about it, so they don’t know anything about it.”

“There’s now more work for you to do.”