The FA never really looked after us, says ’66 goalkeeping hero
GORDON BANKS says the surviving members of the 1966 squad should be flown to Russia to watch the World Cup final if England win tomorrow’s match.
Banks, 80, widely regarded as England’s greatest goalkeeper, said he would love to attend such a historic occasion but also expressed “disappointment” at the Football Association’s treatment of the heroes of Wembley in the decades since Bobby Moore lifted the Jules Rimet trophy.
“I am not sure if I will get invited to the final in Russia if we get there,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “I would like to be [but] the FA have done nothing. It was Fifa who organised for me to go there for the World Cup draw. I have been very disappointed with the FA.”
Banks, who acted as an assistant at the World Cup draw in Russia last December, was capped 73 times and kept the ball out of the net for seven games in 1966 before Portugal scored from the penalty spot in the dying minutes of the semi-final. He is probably best known for his save in the 1970 World Cup which blocked a Pelé header that appeared to be a certain goal.
But he spoke with sadness as he described how so many of the 1966 squad had been reduced to selling their medals or their kit, suggesting the FA had not looked after them over the years.
“In my case it was my shirt,” he said. “That was 10 or 15 years ago. I still have my medal. Nobody has spoken to the FA on our behalf to my knowledge.”
Banks said reunions were normally organised among the players, chiefly by Sir Geoff Hurst, but there was no interaction with the FA. “We did that for a good few years,” he said, “but so much has happened to the players now. A few suffer from Alzheimer’s, a few others we have lost. Geoff had to stop it. We all felt sad about that.”
Banks said he hoped the current team would be better valued. “I hope if these guys succeed they feel more appreciated by the FA than we were,” he said. “They will have deserved it. If you win, it lifts the country. The current players may even be appreciated more because it is such a long time since we had this kind of success.
“As professionals, they are already well rewarded. You have to remember when I turned professional I was earning £20 a week (equivalent to £350 a week today).
“We just felt fortunate to be professional footballers. That was our life.”
Steph Shilton, wife of Peter Shilton, England’s most capped player and one of Banks’s successors in goal, said she hoped he, too, would be invited. “I think our legends need to be a big part of the occasion,” she said.
The FA said it would not make any decisions until after the semi-final.
‘I hope if these guys succeed they feel more appreciated by the FA than we were’