Stevens sham no more than a pantomime

SORRY but, even a week on, I’m still seething at the feeble outcome of the Lord Stevens inquiry into the bung culture that exists in English football.

Richard Scudamore tried in vain to resist looking smug but there was no disguising his pleasure at seeing the Premier League having all its wishes come true.

Mind you, it wasn’t so much a White Xmas for them, rather it was one drenched in whitewash.

According to Lord Stevens who, remember, a week before had also “shocked” the world by telling us that Princess Diana had died in a car crash, his enquiry was neither a witch-hunt nor a whitewash.

Actually, my learned friend, in keeping with the season, it was a pantomime and we’d all be laughing ourselves silly if the issues weren’t so serious.

Let’s be clear about this. Those who deny there is corruption in the game have yet to explain why so many important figures in football believe that there is. People like Sven Goran Eriksson, Alan Curbishley, Mike Newell and the respected agent Colin Gordon.

And they’re only some of those that have chosen to go public. I know of NO ONE who thinks football is clean.

Not even Lord Stevens, it seems. When he was asked pointedly whether, after all his years chasing crooks, he had developed a gut instinct that there was an element of football making money criminally, he replied: “Yes.”

Then there was the quite pitiful failure to produce a single name or club.

Was that his idea or was the anonymity a decision made by the Premier League? “No comment.”

Some of his conclusions merely stated the obvious — many of the “recommendations” are to be adopted next year anyway — or argued the case for the absurd. Why does he think the PFA inappropriate to act on behalf of players when they’re being transferred? Forgive my naivety but I think Gordon Taylor’s organisation is entirely the right body to be employed in these circumstances.

There were so many discrepancies and inconsistencies in this shabby report. What led Scudamore to suggest that clubs, managers and officials are “in the clear, in that the investigation into them has finished” is beyond my understanding — in his and their dreams.

Stevens says he is determined that the investigation into 17 transfers continues with the help of the FA and FIFA. I just wish I had any faith in him collaring the culprits.

And what is this doing for the credibility of the game? Is there any left?

We must all hope that the Premier League and its dodgy dealings are far from being in the clear.

Anyone thinking that the pressure has been switched to the FA and the “eight” agents that wouldn’t cooperate should think again. I don’t believe for a second that reporters in the media will let this business fade away. If football won’t take steps to clean out its own house, if it refuses to name and shame, rest assured others will do it for them.

So, did the outcome of the “bungs inquiry” justify 10 months work and the £850,000 spent?

Did it hell as like!