England Captain Bobby Moore and the Bogota Bracelet Scandal

On 20 August 1970, England's World Cup-winning captain Bobby Moore was cleared of stealing an emerald bracelet from a gift shop in Colombia's capital city, Bogota. This was the conclusion of a bizarre three-month scandal – but how did the situation arise in the first place?

The incident was alleged to have occurred on 18 May 1970. England were in South America to prepare for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, which would see Alf Ramsey's side defend the tournament they had won on home soil four years earlier. As captain, Moore had famously lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy at Wembley.

On 20 May they were scheduled to play Colombia, and were staying in the Hotel Tequendama in Bogota ahead of the match. The Fuego Verde gift shop was located in the hotel's foyer and had been visited by a number of England players and staff during their stay. On the evening of 18 May, Moore entered the shop with Bobby Charlton, who was searching for a gift for his wife. The pair browsed, found nothing, and left.

However a shop assistant followed them into the foyer and accused Moore of stealing an extremely valuable bracelet. The two footballers protested their innocence, but the assistant continued to claim that Moore was guilty, despite the significant lack of evidence – particularly the fact that he had no bracelet on his person. Moore and Charlton were briefly questioned by the authorities and made a statement, but it seemed as though the matter was over.

Things returned to normal: England played their warm-up match against Colombia, winning 4-0, while the British journalists in attendance agreed not to mention the alleged theft in their dispatches – these being the good old days of hush-hush, and all that.

But the story would make the papers yet. A few days later, a second witness came forward claiming to have seen the theft and backing up the shop assistant's version of events.

After the Colombia win England flew to Quito to play Ecuador. They then planned to head to Mexico for the World Cup, though they would do so via a four-hour stopover in Bogota. Upon arrival – and despite some protestations following the bracelet incident – they checked back into the Hotel Tequendama.

And it was there, on 25 May, that Moore was officially arrested for theft — despite no bracelet being discovered either in his possession. He was spared a spell in jail, however, and placed under house arrest at the home of the director of the Colombian Football Federation. The World Cup was scheduled to begin just six days later, so England flew from Bogota without their captain. Many of the players weren't aware of the reason for Moore's absence until they were in the air.

But the news was already out back home, with significant press attention focussed on Moore's arrest and his wife Tina, who had been due to fly to Mexico to join her husband.

The incident made political waves, too. Prime Minister Harold Wilson asked for repeated lobbying of the Colombian government by the British embassy in Bogota, while the Colombians were also aware that a diplomatic incident was developing.

Back in Colombia, Moore went before a judge and was questioned for a full four hours. To help solve the mystery, the judge arranged a reconstruction of the incident. The shop assistant further underminded her claims by stating that Moore had placed the bracelet into the left-hand pocket of his blazer; comically, it was then revealed that the blazer had no pocket on its left side.

There were also conflicting suggestions about the value of the bracelet. Initially it was claimed to cost £500; later it had grown to £5,000; and the store's owner was looking for £6,000 in compensation.

It was clear that Moore had no case to answer and, on 28 May, he was released due to a lack of evidence. He joined up with his teammates in Guadalajara ahead of their opening game on 2 June, which ended in a 1-0 win against Romania. Moore captained his side to the quarter-finals of the tournament, where they exited to Germany. Of course.

And on 20 August, Bogota's chief of police finally concluded that Moore had been the victim of an attempted set-up, with the second witness paid by the jewellery shop owner to testify that Moore had stolen the bracelet. He was thus awarded "unconditional freedom".

That effectively brought to an end one of the more bizarre stories in English football history. And yet, despite the strange and unbelievable nature of the incident, it never truly left Moore. Some even believe it is the reason he was not awarded a knighthood.