25.06.26

It’s a funny old game – World Cup and Insurance

When England won the World Cup in 1966, Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore and Martin Peters were each insured at Lloyd’s against career ending injury.

Not knowing what to do when he retired from football, Hurst began selling insurance. Working for Abbey Life, a story goes that a customer on the telephone said: “Well if you’re Geoff Hurst, I’m Marilyn Monroe”.

Peters was the other scorer in the 4-2 victory against West Germany. A few years after he began working in insurance, Sir Geoff bumped into Peters in a pub, and they began speaking about their careers. At this point, Peters decided to join Hurst at his new employer, a motor insurer called Motor-Plan.

Motor-Plan was subsequently bought by London General Holdings and Sir Geoff was made a director of the company. That firm was then bought by Aon where he was made Managing Director of the Domestic Appliance Division.

In 1961, when Hurst and Peters were playing for the Hammers, the West Ham Supporters club took out insurance against the risk of injury whilst travelling to and from matches. If a limb was lost, they would be paid £500. If they slipped whilst walking on the terraces, they would receive £2 a week (up to 100 weeks).

The other World Cup winner, captain Bobby Moore, was insured for $1 million when he played in the World Indoor Football Association league at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1973 – an amount significantly higher than the 1966 policy taken out on him by the Football Association. He was insured against injury during the World Cup for the same amount as any other international game – £50,000. Of that, the Hammers would have received £45,000 and Moore, £5,000.

The Jules Rimet trophy that Moore lifted that year was also insured at Lloyd’s – for £30,000.

The England players at the 1986 World Cup finals were insured at the tournament against becoming the victim of a terror attack, a hijacking, injury, illness or kidnap. Each were covered for different amounts with the lowest being Peter Shilton (£250,000) and the highest Peter Reid and Mark Hateley (£2,000,000).

When Coventry’s Justin Finch competed in the 1987 Subbuteo World Cup, his hands were insured at Lloyd’s of London for £160,000. His forefinger alone for £40,000. Waddington’s, the makers of the game, used the policy as a publicity stunt. Other players were worried about injury and so, insured against it before World Cup tournaments. These included the England Subbuteo squad who insured their fingers for £50,000 in 1990.

Article shared from Paul Miller – of the Insurance Museum

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Out of interest, if you have the original 1966 version of the England World Cup winning team in the original box as part of your Subbuteo collection – it may be worth getting an accurate valuation for your household insurance policy.