Robbie Fowler certainly helped to draw attention to his new podcast with his former Liverpool and England team-mate Steve McManaman this week by airing his views on the 1969 moon landing.
After answering fan questions ranging from favourite films, comedians and useless talents, Fowler responded to McManaman’s prompt of the moon landing as a conspiracy theory.
‘I think the moon landing is bulls*** to be fair,’ with an excited McManaman declaring ‘that is a massive one,’ before declaring his subsequent reasoning made ‘perfect sense’.
He is far from the only footballer to have doubts, with another ex-England international Joe Cole declaring he would like to sit down with Neil Armstrong – who died in 2012 – to get to the bottom of it.
Fowler later quipped he is ‘not a flat earther’ having been up on a plane. However, some former footballers are, while others have raised a wide range of conspiracies, ranging from the small scale to the more wild.
Here, Daily Mail Sport puts together our ultimate XI of football’s conspiracy theorists.
Former Liverpool forward Robbie Fowler admitted this week he believes the moon landing is ‘bulls***’ Source: YouTube – We’ll have a look podcast
GK: David Icke
For many, David Icke is football’s original conspiracy theorist – so entrenched in his off-the-wall beliefs and so willing to share them publicly that he is more widely known as a crackpot than a goalkeeper.
Nevertheless, Icke turned out for Coventry City’s youth set-up between the sticks in the late 1960s, and later played for semi-professional outfit Hereford United before hanging up his boots and pivoting to sports journalism.
While his playing career might have been small-fry, his commitment to conspiracy theories is Premier League. Among his often-cited beliefs is the idea that an inter-dimensional race of reptile-like shape-shifters – the ‘Babylon Brotherhood’ have infiltrated the upper echelons of global society.
Among the accused are the late Queen Mother, the Rockefeller and Rothschild families, and former Prime Minister Edward Heath, whose eyes, Icke alleged, he saw turn ‘jet black’ when the pair met in 1989.
Icke also believes that the ‘Illuminati’ at the top of the global food chain organised world events including Dunblane, 9/11, the assassination of John F Kennedy, the death of Princess Diana to prompt their subsequent responses. Less laughable is the thick seam of anti-Semitism which critics believe runs through his thinking, although Icke has denied this.
For many, David Icke is football’s original conspiracy theorist, with one of his cited beliefs is the idea that reptile-like shape-shifters have infiltrated the upper echelons of global society
RB: Javi Poves
Javi Poves endured a similarly unmemorable professional playing career in Spain, but did at least register one La Liga appearance with Sporting Gijon. Then, he quit. It was a matter of principle: he had grown to believe that ‘professional football is only money and corruption’. Not an unreasonable view point, from some perspectives, but years on from his 2011 resignation things become somewhat more surreal.
Poves joined lower-division Madrid club Mostoles Balompie in 2016 and later became the club’s president. In 2019, he renamed the club Flat Earth FC, to draw attention to his primary cause.
‘Football is the most popular sport and has the most impact worldwide, so creating a club dedicated to the flat earth movement is the best way to have a constant presence in the media,’ he said that year.
‘Flat Earth FC is the first football club whose followers are united by the most important thing, which is an idea.’
Although Poves has since moved to fellow amateur side CDC Moscardo, he remains passionately committed to the idea that the earth is flat and not round, and other environmentally-rooted conspiracy theories. These include viewing ‘chemtrails’ as a deployment of toxic chemicals, and refusing to believe that suncream can help prevent skin cancer.
CB: Dejan Lovren
One thread which runs through a number of players included in the XI is a scepticism of Covid-19. Some, like Sol Campbell, have suggested that the pandemic was in some way man-made. Icke is in the camp which believes that the lockdown and vaccination scheme was akin to governmental ‘facism’.
Lovren was firmly in team Icke during the lockdown years, posting a number of his videos on social media. He also used social media to attack Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, implying some kind of conspiracy with his comment: ‘Game over Bill. People are not blind’ on Gates’s online tribute to health workers.
The Croatian defender seemed particularly swayed by Icke’s theories around the links between Covid-19 and 5G technology in ‘controlling’ populations, with Lovren resharing clips with the caption ‘we will not be censored’.
Dejan Lovren supported Icke’s views during the pandemic and hit out at Bill Gates
Lovren took to Instagram to promote an interview with Icke during the pandemic
CB: Sol Campbell
As mentioned in Lovren’s section, Campbell also had his suspicions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Then managing Southend United, in May 2020, Campbell appeared to suggest that he believed the disease was made deliberately and designed to target certain population groups.
‘Was this virus a natural mistake or a designed mistake…?’ he posted on social media. ‘I wonder does this virus deliberately attacks a certain blood type…..?’
Campbell shared his idea alongside a screenshot of an article citing an ONS report that showed Black people were four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than any other ethnic group. He later was widely derided for having no scientific evidence to support his argument.
Sol Campbell appeared to suggest in 2020 he believed Covid-`9 was made deliberately and designed to target certain population groups
Campbell shared his idea alongside a screenshot of an article citing an ONS report that showed Black people were four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than any other ethnic group
LB: Fabian Delph
The former Manchester City defender has previously admitted to a conspiracy theory that has more sympathetic readers nodding in approval: he believes in ghosts.
Delph admitted in 2016 that he sees ghosts ‘all the time’, adding that ‘genuinely’ he had seen about ‘four’.
‘When I first signed for (Aston) Villa I stayed in a hotel there was lots of things moving in the room, a lot of bangs,’ he told Man City’s official YouTube channel.
‘And about four months ago I saw, in my house in God’s country (Yorkshire), I saw two ghosts in my bedroom.’
‘I don’t think they’re there to harm me. But I’ve definitely seen them. It was just a split second and then they were gone.
‘The one four months ago, that actually was carrying a body, it went out onto my balcony, then disappeared.’
Joe Cole admitted he is open to having his head turnedabout the moon landings and would be keen to sit down with Neil Armstrong to ‘get to the bottom of things’
RM: Joe Cole
Compared to how some of the other members of Daily Mail Sport’s XI have at times risked public safety or aired unpleasant and divisive views, Cole’s position on the 1969 Moon Landings feels somewhat milquetoast.
Additionally, unlike many, he admitted that he is open to having his head turned, with Cole keen to sit down with Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, to ‘get to the bottom’ of things.
‘I’m not sold either way and I need some convincing. I want to believe it, honestly,’ Cole told FourFourTwo. ‘But I’ve heard too much about it being fake – things like the flag waving and the footprints and all the rest of it.
‘I would love to sit down with a man who actually went there and be convinced. I want him to tell me exactly how it all went down and some of the science behind my questions.
‘I just want to put it to bed. If anyone could convince me, it’s the first man to have apparently visited the moon. I don’t mind being talked round to new ideas which is why I’d be more than happy for him to tell me how silly I’m being.
‘That’s what makes you evolve as a human being. You have to be open to different ideas in life.’
CM: Marcos Llorente
If Pove represents a distinctly Spanish-style conspiracy theorist, Marcos Llorente treads the well-beaten path, with his primary focus the benefits of sunlight – to the extent of snubbing suncream – and a suspicion of ‘chemtrails’.
Llorente takes his theories on natural light and the sun to the extreme, however. A staunch advocate of the blue light-blocking sunglasses also favoured by stars including Erling Haaland, the Atletico Madrid midfielder also eschews unnatural light sources in his house after dark. Instead, Llorente works on soaking up as much red light as possible.
In the sun, Llorente takes it one step further, frequently sharing incorrect views on suncream’s impact on Vitamin D and dismissing the connection between skin cancer and unprotected skin.
Marcos Llorente is a committed wearer of blue light-blocking glasses in a bid to boost his melatonin
Llorente has frequently endorsed the repeatedly debunked theory that ‘chemtrails’ are the result of government or corporate intervention
Llorente often does so in a tongue-in-cheek way: in April, he dressed up as a bottle of suncream, but with a twist. Written on the bottle in Spanish were messages reading: ‘Protect against your biology’ and ‘Blocking Vitamin D since 1985’.
On the back of the bottle costume in lieu of ingredients, Llorente drew a graph of rising skin cancer rates and an accompanying message.
‘Get in the shade when your body tells you, ‘That’s enough’. Get sun exposure year-round, not just three days in August,’ the ‘warning label’ read. ‘Use clothing as sun protection. Start in the morning and work your way up (don’t start at 1pm).
‘Build melanin gradually. Eat a balanced diet so your skin responds better. Stay hydrated and connect with nature.’
More recently Llorente, a bon viveur and lover of rare steak, ‘bulletproof’ butter coffee and good wine, has intensified his stance on other medical theories, including alleging that high cholesterol or ‘bad’ cholesterol does not have an impact on health.
CM: Matt Le Tissier
Matt Le Tissier is no single-issue conspiracy theorist, with the Southampton icon borderline indiscriminate about the wide range of his causes.
Like many, his outpourings amplified amid the pandemic, with Le Tissier frequently opining on the efficacy of vaccines and painting ‘big pharma’ as a bogeyman. Then, in 2022, he was stood down from his role as Saints ambassador after peddling Russian lies that the massacre at Bucha, in Ukraine, had been fabricated. This came despite the fact that there was video, satellite, and photographic evidence that Russia had murdered over 320 people in the town.
Earlier this year, Le Tissier found himself in a spat with Grok, X’s AI chatbot, over ‘chemtrails’, asking: ‘Hey (Grok), why do some plane trails disperse quickly while others hang around and spread out to form grey blanket clouds?’
The bot had responded that the contrails lingered or didn’t due to atmospheric conditions, much to Le Tissier’s displeasure, with the former midfielder grumbling that Grok was ‘spouting government propaganda’.
Matt Le Tissier, pictured taking a selfie at a Southampton game in February, has frequently raised conspiracy theories over social media
LM: David Cotterill
Former Wales international David Cotterill sparked widespread backlash in 2022 when he referred to ‘false flag events’ using ‘crisis actors’ at the whim of ‘controllers’ within hours of a fatal school shooting in Texas.
Cotterill said in the incendiary post that ‘false flag events are one of their go to methods of manipulating the public opinion to bring about change’.
He also alleged: ‘America is the last major country that allows it’s [sic] citizens to arm themselves. Which they can’t really have with what they’re planning to do in the coming months and years.’
Cotterill later stressed that the post had not been related to the Texas massacre, instead stating that his post was ‘just about recent articles when you see some of the stuff about the pandemic’.
He similarly received intense criticism when he suggested that the retirement of Brighton’s 24-year-old Enock Mwepu due to cardiac issues was linked to side effect of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Cotterill remains unrepentant however, recently appearing on a podcast where he admitted that he supports ‘everything’ Le Tissier says, and revealed his belief in 2016’s discredited Pizzagate conspiracy, among other conspiracy theories.
‘I’ve gone into so many rabbit holes. If you see lots of things happening in the world with the number 33, which is obviously massive for Freemasonry and symbolism,’ he told Made in Brum Podcast. ‘If you see a lot of things that happen in the world, 33 is not far from that. Some people think I’m f***ing nuts.
David Cotterill sparked widespread backlash in 2022 when he referred to ‘false flag events’ using ‘crisis actors’ at the whim of ‘controllers’ within hours of a fatal school shooting in Texas
ST: Rickie Lambert
Former Liverpool and Southampton star Rickie Lambert is among this cohort’s Covid-19 conspiracy theorists, starting off on social media as a staunch vaccine sceptic – only to fall deeper into more fringe views.
Unusually, in 2023, Lambert claimed that he believed that one can change the molecular structure of water based on speaking to a glass of the substance positively or negatively.
‘The one word where water responds in the most beautiful way, with the most beautiful crystals, is showing gratitude to water,’ Lambert said.
More recently, Lambert has been an active supporter of the campaign against ’15-minute cities’, whose detractors believe is a government scheme to control the movement and rights of people, rather than an attempt to provide walkable goods and services.
Ahead of attending a protest in Liverpool in September 2023, Lambert’s call to arms to publicise the event stressed that the scheme was ‘a controlled tactic being implemented across this country’ and that Merseyside was set to be put under permanent surveillance.
Rickie Lambert (pictured) has claimed talking positively to water makes it clean
ST: Robbie Fowler
Like Cole, Fowler appears to have merely dipped a toe into the world of conspiratorial thinking, and has similarly alighted on the Moon Landing as the target of his suspicion.
Unlike the former Chelsea star however, there seemed to be little that would change his mind when he discussed the topic with his We’ll Have A Look podcast with co-host Steve McManaman.
‘I think the Moon Landing is bulls***, to be fair,’ Fowler said. ‘Because there was a race in the Sixties, between the Americans and the USSR.
‘All of a sudden, the USSR were ahead of the Americans (after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space) and all of a sudden, the Americans got there first.
‘I think it’s a bit far-fetched. I don’t know, that is the general gist of what I’m saying – I just don’t think it was real.’
