The following article by Raymond O’Connell was first published in Unity, the weekly paper of the Irish Communist Party.
AN article I read in last Sunday’s Observer Newspaper (24.05.26) had me reaching for my copy of Frances Stoner Saunders The Cultural Cold War her account of the nefarious activities of the CIA during those years. The article which provoked this suggested they had possibly poisoned the England goalkeeper and legend in his own playing career Gordon Banks, now deceased. Not only did the newspaper have a story spread across three pages its front page was given over to a photo of Banks in action.
The dastardly act was alleged to have taken place during the Football World Cup in Mexico in 1970. Prior to the competition the England captain Bobby Moore, also a legend, had been charged with stealing a bracelet in Bogotá and frantic efforts, which succeeded, were being made to get him to Mexico for the start of the World Cup. The story of the stolen bracelet has never been solved. The journalist who wrote the Banks story spent 3 years researching it after dismissing it as a conspiracy theory initially. Now he is not so sure.
The argument is that the Brazilian military dictatorship was obsessed with winning the World Cup. Having been installed by the US and being somewhat unpopular it was felt victory would be a big boost in their popularity and legitimacy. England stood in the way. While the minutiae of what was or might have been going on is truly the bread and butter of conspiracy geeks the really significant information appears as a somewhat inconsequential side show.
It transpires Mexico was the largest CIA base in the western hemisphere. The chief of station Winston Scott had three successive Mexican presidents on the CIA payroll. In 1968 an agent was sent to infiltrate the Mexico Olympics having been at every Olympics since “the “Soviets appeared in Helsinki in 1952”. Agee, the agent in Mexico wrote “Provocations, defections, propaganda …all the way with the CIA”.
Saunders book deals with how the CIA orchestrated the ‘cultural world’. Nothing was too insignificant to be of use and they were behind many of the cultural events and artistic activities that would have been assumed to be completely devoid of political interference at the time. However, checking her index I can find no reference to sport and the CIA. A ‘Black Hole’ perhaps. In present circumstances we can assume they have been extremely active keeping Russia out of all international sport, aided and abetted by supine western governments while ensuring the Zionist Israeli war machine continues to be included.
Most of the British media is usually skeptical when it comes to conspiracy theories so it is interesting that when one comes nearer to home ‘there may be some truth in it’…but surely they would never sabotage England’s chance of winning the World CUP. Still let’s face it that is the only way England could have lost in 1970…isn’t it!
PS. England lost 3-2 to West Germany in the quarter final and Peter Bonetti Bank’s replacement was blamed for two of the goals. He never played for England again.