Gordon Banks always said his upset stomach, which made the goalkeeper miss England’s World Cup quarter final v West Germany in Mexico in 1970, was due to a dodgy pint16:31, 25 May 2026Astonishing claims England goalkeeper Gordon Banks was secretly poisoned by the CIA in the 1970 World Cup have re-emerged. Banks fell ill just before England’s World Cup quarter final v West Germany in Mexico and missed the game. His absence was widely considered the reason why the Three Lions lost. Banks always blamed his upset stomach on a dodgy bottle of beer.‌Now a former BBC reporter has been investigating and believes the CIA - the US foreign intelligence agency - may have been responsible because they were said to have been keen for Brazil to win the tournament for geo-political reasons. Gabriel 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.‌‌READ MORE: Summer transfer window: Key dates, contract expiries and when clubs can sign players fromREAD MORE: Arsenal finally get their hands on Premier League trophy after Crystal Palace win“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. “Because this unlikely tale appears to come from a highly credible source: a senior US senator who received secret briefings from the CIA. The story, at least in print, appears to originate with Brian Glanville, a football writer in the 1960s and 1970s. “In his 2007 book Glanville writes: 'Though not, I hope, an addict of conspiracy theory… I have steadily come to believe that Banks was the victim of sabotage.'“The plot then thickens. According to Glanville, Bob Oxby, another football journalist, told him he had a cousin, Stuart Symington, who was US senator for the state of Missouri from 1952 to 1976.‌“On the subject of Banks’s illness and England’s quarter-final defeat, Symington allegedly told Oxby: 'That was the CIA! You don’t think we were going to let England beat Brazil, do you?'"Banks fell ill at the Guadalajara Hilton in Mexico.After England’s win over Czechoslovakia some players had a few “quiet drinks” to celebrate. Three days later, Banks is sick, with disastrous consequences for England.‌Gatehouse asks: “Why would the CIA want to poison the England goalkeeper to help Brazil? The rationale, supposedly, goes as follows: 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 in the western hemisphere. By 1970, the regime had become increasingly repressive and felt it needed a popularity boost.“Even if football were politically important to the Brazilian dictatorship, it seemed like a stretch to think the Americans, not known for their interest in soccer, would go so far as to poison an England player to bolster a friendly regime.‌“But in the CIA’s archive I discovered a document that suggested they were at least aware of the political power of the World Cup. The memo is dated 2 February 1971 and marked 'SECRET'.“It is an assessment of the stability of the Brazilian dictatorship In many respects, the Médici regime in Brazil is riding high,” it begins, adding: “General Emilio Garrastazu Médici… is becoming a relatively popular president. He skillfully managed to associate himself with Brazil’s victory at the World Cup soccer games last summer.”‌Neil Phillips, the team doctor believed Banks’s illness was just bad luck or the result of a lapse in food discipline. He said: “A sandwich, pieces of salad or unpeeled fruit was, in my opinion, the most likely source of the infection.”Historian and biographer of England manager Sir Alf Ramsey Grant Bage said: “This is fascinating. For years there have been rumours about CIA involvement with this incident. Alf always had concerns about what happened to Banks - concerns previously labelled ‘paranoid’“I did some research on this US senator saw he had his CIA connections but wasn’t able to take it any further. I am so glad a reputable journalist now has. It’s a fascinating theory that may well turn out to be true.”Article continues belowBanks missed the game and his replacement Chelsea's Peter Bonetti was blamed for conceding one of the goals. Banks, a Stoke City legend, died in Madeley, Staffordshire, aged 81 in February 2019.