Introducing: Foul Play
5/22/20264 min
Ed is the grandson of footballing legend Gordon Banks. He was a national icon, the only goalkeeper ever to win the soccer World Cup for England. But Ed’s heard a rumour: that in 1970, while defending the title, his granddad, his hero, was poisoned… by the CIA. All part of a Cold War plot to bolster a military dictatorship in Latin America, supposedly. Could this possibly be true? Banks did get ill in Mexico in 1970 with food poisoning. And England crashed out, marking the start of decades of hurt. Ed enlists the help of investigative journalist Gabriel Gatehouse. Together they embark on a journey into the bewildering world of Cold War espionage, a journey that threatens to unravel 60 years of sporting history; or possibly… to knock Ed’s granddad off his pedestal. Foul Play is an Audible Original, produced for Audible by Grayhouse Productions.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsGabriel Gatehouse· Host0:01
[phone ringing] So, OK. I heard this rumour, a crazy one, that the CIA poisoned my grandad.
Speaker 1· Soundbite0:11
Gordon Banks, the world's number one goalkeeper.
Gabriel Gatehouse· Host0:15
Gordon Banks, my grandad, won the World Cup for England in 1966. [crowd cheering] But four years later, at the next World Cup in Mexico in 1970, he fell ill, and England crashed out.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:30
[crowd groaning] It was very suspicious about the way he got ill. His general feeling was that he was sabotaged, because his absence was crucial.
Gabriel Gatehouse· Host0:39
It sounds like a mad conspiracy theory, right? At least, that's what I thought, until I started digging. [upbeat music] I'm Gabriel Gatehouse. I'm an investigative journalist.
Speaker 3· Guest0:52
This is a conspiracy, everything, in Mexico, and they were, like, uh, super paranoid.
Gabriel Gatehouse· Host0:57
It's the Cold War.
Speaker 4· Guest0:58
There's no question that the philosophy within CIA at the time was that, you know, we needed to do some extraordinary things to counter the Soviets.
Gabriel Gatehouse· Host1:09
[suspenseful music] Mexico, during the World Cup, is a place teeming with spies.
Speaker 5· Guest1:15
[typewriter clacking] The network of surveillance that was set up in Mexico is spoken about even today.
Gabriel Gatehouse· Host1:23
But if someone poisoned my grandad's food or drink, then who did it?
Speaker 6· Guest1:28
They have, uh, photos of your grandfather.