Did the CIA poison England's Banks?

In 1970, England's footballers travelled to Mexico to start the defence of their World Cup title.

Their goalkeeper, Gordon Banks, was in top form, pulling off what many regard as the save of the century fending off a Pele header during a group stage match.

But a severe bout of what was thought to be food poisoning ruled him out of the quarter-final against West Germany, which England went on to lose 3-2.

As far-fetched as it may sound, some believed the former Stoke City player, who died in 2019, was poisoned by the CIA, and now a podcast, Foul Play, has looked into those allegations.

Investigative journalist Gabriel Gatehouse worked with the player's grandson, Ed Jervis, on the three-year project.

"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."

Peter Bonetti took the legend's place in goal as England blew a two-goal lead to lose after extra time.

However, many were convinced the Lions would have won if Banks had played, with some suspicious he had been poisoned to ensure eventual champions Brazil triumphed.

"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."

Journeying from Stoke-on-Trent to Mexico and the United States, the pair spoke to former England players and ex-spies and scoured medical and CIA documents.

Early on, they discovered the Brazilian team had help from Nasa in their pre-world cup training, Jervis said.

"When I first started this, I thought, this is highly implausible. Now I'm thinking, 'bloody hell, this could have happened'", Gatehouse said.

The investigation has been an "odd emotional rollercoaster" for the player's grandson, who he remembered as "just a really lovely guy and a great grandad".

"Obviously, I'm upset with the thought somebody might have targeted my grandad, but also there's part of me that's quite proud in a weird way.

"Cos you're like, 'he was that good, they had to go after him'."

He described the moment, 56 years ago, as a "turning point" in the English game.

"As an England fan, you do look at this and say it sort of seems like the curse of English football started in 1970," he said. "We haven't really been the same since."

Foul Play, made by Audible, is available from Thursday.