Because as a piece of investigative journalism this was at best flimsy, at worst a complete joke – and one without a punchline at that.

The claims made in the programme may or may not be true. The fact is there was absolutely no evidence to support them.

Instead all we were left with were claims and innuendo – the same claims and innuendo that have orbited football for years.

Those of us who report on the game regularly hear rumours about who might or might not be on the take.

But whatever we may think about those claims they amount to nothing more than gossip.

The idea of committing them to print is unthinkable. However, that’s effectively what Panorama has done.

What we as viewers wanted to see was firm, unambiguous proof of corruption – the cash being handed over, an admission from those accused or, at the very least, some kind of paper trail.

Those are high expectations but without that level of proof the programme simply had no substance.

Even more damaging was the fact that the show relied almost completely on claims made by the very characters it aimed to expose as dodgy – a motley collection of low-ranking football agents you wouldn’t trust to sell you double-glazing.

How can you portray people as being untrustworthy one moment and then offer up their word as gospel the next?

Despite these fatal flaws though the BBC persisted in presenting the programme as some kind of watershed in the battle to root out corruption.

On Monday I took a phonecall from someone trying to publicise the show – at the time we were firmly immersed in reporting Bryan Robson’s departure from Albion.

The programme was also heavily talked up on Five Live on Monday night.

The Beeb worked hard to ensure Panorama was already a big story before anyone outside the corporation had actually seen it.

Now there’s nothing wrong with our public service broadcaster publicising its shows but in this instance the programme’s findings simply didn’t live up to the hype.

Put bluntly the attention Tuesday’s Panorama received was more to do with PR than the weight of its content.

Surely the Beeb didn’t think that by building up a whirlwind of publicity around the programme they could hide the fact it was a complete turkey, did they?

There again I find it hard to believe no-one at the BBC saw the footage offered up at the end of the investigation and asked where the real evidence was.

If not then the corporation really is in trouble.

One of the most laughable parts of the programme was the clip showing Harry Redknapp in conversation with agent Peter Harrison.

This was presented by the Beeb during the show and then on the 10pm news as proof of Redknapp making an “approach” for a player – “tapping up” in everyday parlance.

Well, I’m sorry, all I saw was Redknapp admitting he liked Todd as a player and would be interested in signing him if he became available.

To call this an “approach” was a massive leap from reality into PR spin.

In fact, you could equally argue this was a case of a player’s representative “tapping up” a manager.

If the BBC had worked as hard at gathering and firming up evidence as it did at talking up the show Panorama might actually have come somewhere near to exposing wrong-doing in the game.

Sadly, the only scandal I could see on Tuesday night was the fact the programme ever made it to air in the first place.

Send us your views on Andy’s blog here

Andy Toft is the Express & Star’s video journalist. Until recently, he was the paper’s West Bromwich Albion reporter

Your comments:

“I like a good ‘blog’ – there is nothing quite like it! I am also pleased that my thoughts about Panorama and their juicy story about football corruption are not far from that of Mr Toft. It was so thin you could see through it! This was not tele-journalism at its best. But it dirtied reputations. I can see some of the ‘stars’ of that show earning a bob or two in the High Court!” Phil BatemanPopular stories:

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