On the Premiership: Martin Jol laughed. Alan Curbishley sighed and shrugged his shoulders. Micky Adams frowned and started muttering about "opening a can of worms". The rest merely shuffled their feet and stared at the floor.

The reaction to Luton manager Mike Newell's revelation last week he had been offered bungs to facilitate transfer deals and that "people in high places are also involved with agents" was entirely, and sadly, predictable.

Professional football has an infuriating habit of closing ranks on wrong-doers and it did not disappoint in the wake of Newell's claims. As the man himself predicted, "I fear there won't be a long queue of people backing me."

Football's financial irregularities have for too long been treated with casual indifference by both the game's protagonists and its ruling bodies. It is an issue which the industry finds bafflingly difficult to take seriously. Even when the issue of illegal payments is discussed, it is too often treated as a frothy inconsequence. Bungs are a cheeky little side-earner; the bunged, crafty old cards who just cannot help themselves. The world turns a blind eye and everyone gets on with their dirty business.

Except now they cannot. Newell has prised open the lid of Pandora's Box and all sorts of unseemly secrets are threatening to spill out, much to the annoyance of people who would rather they were kept tightly sealed. There was something particularly unpalatable in a group of leading agents - acting under the self-satisfied title the Football Agents Association - condemning Newell's decision to make his experiences public knowledge last week.

This is the same group who count among their number Jonathan Barnett from the Stella Group, the man who was investigated by the English FA for his role in allowing Chelsea to tap up the Arsenal full back Ashley Cole last summer. Then there is the Formation Group, who employed Paul Stretford on its board until he was forced to resign when he was dismissed as an unreliable witness in the trial of three men accused of blackmailing him over his former client Wayne Rooney's contract.

It is laughable for agents to occupy the moral high ground, and yet the problem lies not so much with them - they are, after all, simply money men trying to get the best deal for themselves and their clients - but in the governing bodies who have steadfastly failed to apply proper regulations on their activities. By refusing to subject transfer dealings and contract negotiations to proper scrutiny, they are effectively washing their hands of the problem. Out of sight, out of mind.

But that is not good enough. It is time for the FA - who are always keen to stress their status as football's moral guardians - to get tough. It will take time to resolve all the sport's manifold money problems, but how about this for a start.

First, the FA should continue to address the potentially treacherous issue of managers using their relatives in transfer negotiations. The sons of Alex Ferguson and Sam Allardyce are both active in the agency business and, while no accusations of impropriety have been levelled at them, the potential for a conflict of interests is obvious. The FA must not flinch in ensuring that any deals involving managers and their relatives are as transparent as possible.

Second, clubs should be prevented from paying agents directly. At present, an agent can take a cut from both the buying and selling club, plus the player he represents. This is a patently absurd situation - why should an agent be paid three times for doing one job? - which could be rectified if the FA decreed that an agent should be paid by the player alone. This would not only eliminate the potentially unsavoury scenario of clubs having "favoured" agents, but also force the player to accept full responsibility for his representative's behaviour in negotiating a deal for him.

Third, players under the age of 18 should be represented by the Professional Footballers' Association. A few quiet words of advice from an unscrupulous agent are likely to have a far deeper impact when whispered into the ear of a teenager rather than a seasoned pro, and the FA should be seeking to protect them. Southampton's sublimely talented striker Theo Walcott is currently being hawked around the Premiership's top four like a piece of cheap meat, despite having not yet celebrated his 17th birthday, and more will follow unless agents are kept in check.

In the end, football will only cure its ills when the men who run it - at the FA and Fifa - begin accepting responsibility for weeding out its corruptive influences. Mike Newell might have given the game the spur it needs to clean up its act.