Links With The Past: Wembley Flag On World Cup Final Day
On the anniversary of that famous day in the country's sporting history, John explains how it came to be donated to the Club by a lifelong Foxes supporter...
On 30 July, 1966, Leicester City’s Gordon Banks was a World Cup winner as a member of the England team which defeated West Germany 4-2 after extra time.
Flying above Wembley Stadium on that historic occasion were 22 large cloth flags, each measuring 3.6 metres x 1.8 metres. The flag illustrated here was one of them and is a part of the Club’s collection of historic artefacts.
A study of photographs suggests it might have flown above one of the Wembley scoreboards.
It has been donated by lifelong Leicester City fan Keith Phillips, who lives in Wanganui on New Zealand’s North Island.
Born in Mountsorrel, Keith remembers, as a seven-year-old, watching Arthur Rowley play at Filbert Street in the 1950s before his family moved to New Zealand in 1964.
Keith returned to England for three years in 1967, during which time he watched most of City’s matches, home and away.
He bought the flag in 1969 for around £2.50 in today's money in a Soho second-hand shop, where it was on sale as a painter’s drop sheet! Its provenance has since been confirmed by flag specialists.
Keith, who follows Leicester games from his home in New Zealand, turned down the National Football Museum’s interest in the flag, offering it to LCFC instead.
He made this decision due to Banks’ connection to Leicester City and because of his desire for his flag to find a home at the Club he has always supported.