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link up with Mountford and Mitten, a World Cup in which England were humiliated
by the United States. What might have been.
Unfortunately, the South American gamble proved much more like El Dorado than
they had imagined. In that it didn’t really exist. The civil war made it difficult to
settle, and a 6:30 curfew meant there was no social life to speak of, where players
could have spent their fortune. But then, they didn’t receive much of a fortune
anyway. Payments were erratic and, once the players had moved their whole lives
to South America, the money seemed to dry up. Signing on fees were not paid,
Franklin reportedly only received one week’s pay, and their performances (when
they played), though acceptable, were not the legendary displays everybody had
been expecting. Franklin left after six games. Mountford managed a few months.
Mitten, the pioneer, managed a little longer, before turning down a move to Real
Madrid with Alfredo di Stefano to come back to England. None were rich, and all
were disgraced.

All of the players received suspensions, and Mitten was fined six months’ wages by
Sir Matt Busby. It was made clear that Franklin was not welcome back at Stoke, or
any other top flight club, so he dropped a division to play for Hull (who had tried
to make him the most expensive player in the world before his Colombian
adventure). He didn’t get the opportunity to return to national team duties either.
He is one of the great English what might have beens.

Columbia, also, were sanctioned by FIFA for poaching players. Alongside Santa Fe,
other clubs had poached from other areas of the world. Millionaros, for example,
had attracted the aforementioned di Stefano, a move that saw the great man turn
out for the Colombian national side. But the FIFA punishment for their disregard of
footballing orthodoxy was a ban from international competition, so his caps never
counted. He switched nationality from Argentina to Spain a few years later, just to
confuse things even more.

Franklin would later admit that the whole affair was, obviously, a mistake. His still
became the most expensive defender in the world, but injuries at Hull prevented
him from ever fulfilling the potential he had shown as a young player. It would be
hard not to regret everything about it. He finished his career at Crewe in the late
1950s, around the same time as Colombia had their ban overturned and had the
honour of taking part at the 1958 World Cup, and former team mate Stanley
Matthew was being lauded as one of the best players in the world.
Enjoy the game.

Martyn Green The Untold Game

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