Has Bond’s Sacking Vindicated The Panorama Programme?

Following Newcastle United’s announcement to the Stock Exchange that assistant manager Kevin Bond has been relieved of his duties with immediate effect, should we look on the BBC’s Panorama programme with a fresh outlook after their much maligned Premiership bungs inquiry now appears to have borne fruit, starting with Bond’s sacking?

I was among the football watchers who were initially enthralled at the tales of underhand payments and corrupt football managers as told by the BBC’s undercover team byt by the end of the Panorama programme the only hard evidence we seemed to have accumulated were that the BBC had launched a vendetta against Bolton manager Sam Allardyce, aided and abetted by his opportunistic and slow witted son Craig, and that Harry Redknapp thought Andy Todd was a “tough bastard”. Hardly earth shattering news for Premiership opponents or rival fans it has to be said.

While Panorama centred on Allardyce they give only a few minutes to the former Portsmouth coach Kevin Bond and a carefully edited taped phone conversation which seemed to imply that Bond would be agreeable to some illegal payments and that he might be willing to speak with his then boss Harry Redknapp about the same. hardly conclusive evidence but seemingly good enough for Newcastle United to sack Bond over and it’ll be a day in court for Mr Bond now as he tries to prove that firstly Panorama were in the wrong to try and discredit him and secondly, that Newcastle jumped the gun and unfairly dismissed him from his job as assistant manager and will have caused irreparable damage to his professional reputation.

I can’t help but think that Newcastle have been too hasty in dismissing Bond if their only evidence was the Panorama recorded phone call. If the BBC had any other evidence then surely they would have shown it in the programme and if they didn’t then I hope the powers that be at the BBC get an even bigger caining in court from Kevin Bond’s lawyers. Maybe he is a dodgy character who would like a few quid on the side (don’t we all?) but if it was me in the BBC frame I’d certainly want to have a little more backing from my employer in Bond’s situation.

I don’t think that Kevin Bond’s sacking does vindicate the Panorama programme, instead it’s a cop out by his Newcastle United employers that could yet wind up costing them more than they’ve anticipated to put right in the courts.