UK Edition
Sad end for the secret campaign to get Gordon Banks an overdue knighthood
A secret campaign to get Gordon Banks a "fully-deserved" knighthood had been gathering pace in the months before he died, it has emerged.
England's greatest goalkeeper, who received only an OBE, now joins Bobby Moore as one of the great British athletes to have died after being overlooked for the top honour.
On Tuesday night it emerged David MacDonald, the executive director of Uttoxeter Racecourse, had been leading a campaign to finally get him knighted. Banks is the fourth player of the England team that started the 1966 World Cup final to have died, after Bobby Moore, Ray Wilson and Alan Ball. He went on to win 73 international caps and raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charities after hanging up his gloves.
"It's a shame he wasn't knighted in his lifetime, which would've been fully deserved," MacDonald told the Derbyshire Live website. "I got to know Gordon quite well and was involved in a campaign to get him knighted, which he'd have been really embarrassed about if he'd have known because he was so humble."
Flags are already at half-mast at both Wembley and St George's Park and a video homage will be displayed on the big screens outside the stadium for the rest of the week.
A minute's applause will also be observed during this weekend's FA Cup and EFL fixture as well as during England's Under-15s and Under-16s matches later this week.
The FA confirmed the England players will wear black armbands for their respective fixtures. An FA spokesman said: "Appropriate plans to mark Gordon’s passing at England men’s next home fixture v Czech Republic on Friday 22 March will be discussed in due course."
Banks, a six-time Fifa goalkeeper of the year, will also be celebrated by his former clubs. Stoke City's first-team squad and staff held a minute's silence before training on Tuesday morning. Leicester City, meanwhile, are not in action this weekend, but a spokesman for the club said commemorations were likely at the team's next home match.