Leading article: The referee's warning

So much money has been swilling about football in recent years that we should hardly be surprised that questions have been raised over the way the game conducts its business. As with so many others, a sport that was established by amateurs has struggled to make the transition to a globalised world in which quite average performers can change hands for many millions of pounds. Backhanders and bungs have long been part of football's culture; all that has happened in recent years is that the sums of money involved have had a few noughts added.

At the heart of the latest concerns are the agents that swarm around the players and clubs. While the majority play by the rules, others, it seems, are less bothered by the niceties. After the publication of Lord Stevens' inquiry into Premier League transfers yesterday, few can doubt that there is a need for further investigation and root-and-branch reform. No fewer than five Premier League clubs - a quarter of the total - were named by Lord Stevens as having breached transfer regulations. He also expressed concern about 15 agents and third parties involved in 17 transfers, and about two prominent managers.

It would be wrong to damn football outright in the light of these findings. Nothing has yet been proved. Nonetheless, the report should be required reading for anyone involved in the running of the professional game. It reinforces the feeling that in an era of vast TV deals - a legacy of Rupert Murdoch, as he boasted yesterday - inflated ticket prices, an influx of mega-rich, franchise-seeking foreign owners and a consequent disconnection with ordinary fans, football is struggling to retain any moral bearings.

Lord Stevens' report suggests a structural flaw in the administration of the game. Are the Premier League, the organisation that runs the competition for the elite clubs, and the Football Association, the sport's governing body, really equipped to deal with the multimillion-pound industry that has grown up around them? The clubs themselves likewise leave something to be desired in their grasp of the rules and regulations surrounding transfers. And the game has never arrived at a proper understanding of how agents - for whom there can be no objection in principle - should operate.

Football is undeniably vibrant, but to the extent that it risks running out of control. The time has come to introduce a regulator.

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