The most likeable person on the Panorama programme is possibly Frank Arnesen. As discussion begins over Nathan Porritt's mooted switch from Middlesbrough's academy to the Stamford Bridge payroll, Chelsea's head of development and scouting moves to the whiteboard and starts indicating the position the teenager might fill in the reserves. Arnesen has completely mistaken the nature of the meeting.

His visitors are not much interested and soon get down to talking money. The agent Peter Harrison eventually leaves dissatisfied with the offer to Porritt of £150,000, payable over three years. Viewers, too, will have felt let down by a sum so anticlimactic that it amounts to well under a fortnight's wages for Frank Lampard. Panorama appeared to have no sense of priorities and, in that, the investigators reflected the football establishment itself.

Arnesen and Chelsea could be in trouble over the Porritt affair, but that would highlight muddled objectives at the FA. The champions had, at worst, taken the initial steps to secure a youngster who they were informed was "99.9 per cent" certain to be leaving Boro. Though Panorama demonstrated that Liverpool also wanted Porritt, glamorous Chelsea were a far more attractive target for the producers.

Panorama's ambition was laudable, but when it failed narrowly to catch an unnamed manager who was on the verge of accepting a £50,000 bung the reporters were left floundering and wandered off into comparatively trivial topics.

They and the FA have to decide what sort of behaviour really constitutes grave misconduct. It would be nonsensical to pore over footage of Harry Redknapp claiming that he would certainly have Blackburn's Andy Todd in his Portsmouth team. That was more of a compliment than an illicit approach. The FA surely cannot waste manpower on such remarks.

Even genuine unauthorised approaches to footballers are hardly worth disciplinary proceedings. They have been part of the sport since Victorian times and in any case the Bosman ruling has left clubs looking more hypocritical than ever. With footballers entitled to leave for nothing at the end of their deals, managers seldom want players to see out their contract unless they extend it.

In the wake of Bosman, potential transfers are always in the thoughts of players and managers alike. Ashley Cole and Chelsea were, in reality, being punished merely for shameless indiscretion.

The FA would save itself from hypocrisy by ruling that "tapping up" is no longer an offence. Anyone watching Panorama who had no prior knowledge of football life could only have been repelled by the alleged sleaze of managers and agents. It is Bolton's Sam Allardyce and the accusations, which he denies, that they will remember.

Whatever resources the FA can muster need to be directed in that area because, to date, it has been largely ineffectual in exposing corruption. It was not the football authorities who discovered that George Graham had received a bung. The task does, admittedly, carry a formidable degree of difficulty and the FA has never had the means to tackle it.

Panorama, however, has deepened the public's sense that club football is most unsavoury at its highest levels. Many in the game will expect the whole topic to fade away soon, but it is a test of the FA to ensure this cannot happen.

It is in its favour that the controversy should come while Lord Stevens is chairing an independent inquiry, on behalf of the Premier League, that is examining hundreds of transfers back to 2004. He has unprecedented staffing levels, with a team of accountants at his disposal.

All the same, the English FA and the Premier League may only ever uncover the complete truth if they enjoy access to all banking transactions undertaken by clubs, managers, agents and players who are the subject of accusations. The game's administrators may never enjoy such powers or have a department big enough to deploy them to the full.

In the end, those who want to endow football with some integrity may have to place their hopes with the inland revenue. It can really terrify people who cannot explain their wealth.

Look what happened to Al Capone.