More BBC bollocks

There's not much going on in the world of Arsenal this morning, so instead I'm going to have a rant at the BBC.

I sat down last night to watch the Panorama report which claimed it would "blow the lid off corruption in football". It certainly blew.

Recently BBC "special reports" have been treading a fine line between good undercover journalism and farcical sensationalism. Last night's report was laughable. It was amatuerish. And more to the point, it didn't really prove anything that the BBC had claimed leading up to it's broadcast, ie the guilt of any, let alone many, Premiership managers.

The main target of the programme was our old mate Fat Sam, old Walrus Face himself. I have no love for Sam Allardyce. In fact I have quite a bit of hatred in my heart for the Bolton gaffer, but after watching Panorama in full there is absolutely no concrete evidence linking Fat Sam to ever taking a bung. He was never recorded on camera. He was never recorded on audio tape. There is absolutely no concrete evidence whatsoever. Now I'm not saying Allardyce has never taken a bung, all I'm saying is that this programme did not even get close to proving it.

If we get past the fact that the presenter and main journalist of the report is such an amatuer in his field - listening to his narration was like listening to a five-year old read off flash cards and his insights had all the cutting edge of a slightly damp banana - all of the evidence presented was he-said she-said. Everything was merely one person's word against the other (apart from the Kevin Bond recording, and even then I don't think that's conclusive, and he never asked for a payment, just to work with the new agency that the programme was pretending to set up).

With all persons involved now claiming that they were lying, exaggerating and fabricating the truth to Knut whilst he was undercover, the only real evidence of irregularities is on Craig Allardyce's paperwork with the FA. Seeing as he has already retired from football, where do we go next?

The segment with Harry Redknapp was absolutely ridiculous. He wasn't even offered a bung, let alone accepted one, all they offered him were tickets to the World Cup and a nice hotel whilst he was there, which amounts to nothing more than corporate hospitality. If I were Redknapp I'd sue the pants off the Beeb for bringing my name into this.

It was interesting that the names of so many clubs and players were bleeped out during the programme, obviously because the BBC felt that the evidence linking these parties was even flimsier than the evidence against those named. The "tapping up" allegations levelled at Chavski and the 'Pool were just as flimsy. A guy turns up and says "this kid's unhappy where he is, would you be interested if he became available?" and you say "yes, if he were to become available we'd be interested" and offer to pay an agent's fee and a signing on fee (which you have to to make any deal in this day and age) and that is tapping up? Not in my book.

Some football managers take bungs, I am absolutely certain of this. What I am also certain of is that the BBC failed to prove any one manager guilty, and only really told us what we already know, that it is prevalent in the game.

It reminds me somewhat of the Newsnight expose alleging that Arsenal had broken regulations in dealings with Beveren and should be investigated by the FA and FIFA. Arsenal were cleared of any wrong doing by both, aided by the fact that there was no actual proof in the initial Newsnight report, just some irresponsible, sensationalist journalism (stemming from the producer who is a Spurs fan) which had a direct effect on David Dein being voted off the FA board. At least last night's programme was conducted over a year and involved some proper research, but it was still a poor excuse for investigative reporting and the only proof it put forward is that the BBC is continuing it's slide away from quality journalism.