The reputation of football agents has been further sullied buy the BBC's Panorama. Chief Football Writer Paul Fraser speaks to Ian Elliott, a North-East agent who, despite protesting his innocence, almost featured in Tuesday's programme.

IN March, Ian Elliott, the football agent of Middlesbrough and England winger Stewart Downing, was approached by his friend, Peter Harrison, about the possibility of a £1.2m business deal.

Understandably with those sort of figures and having spoken at length to Harrison, he agreed to meet Knut auf den Berg, a man supposedly the front man for a 'Mr Big' who wanted to buy out Elliott's agency for more than a million pounds.

Auf den Berg turned out to be an undercover BBC reporter for Panorama, whose programme of alleged corruption is threatening to turn football on its head. In the build-up to the programme, word leaked that Elliott was one of those who was going to be named; only nine hours before the programme was screened did the BBC send Elliott, who has always vigorously protested his innocence, a brief, two-line note saying that he would not, after all, be appearing.

Yesterday, at his office near the MetroCentre in Gateshead and before taking his client Grant Leadbitter, of Sunderland, for a round of golf which he won, he explained how his suspicions were almost immediately raised that he was being caught up in a sting.

"I was introduced to them by Peter. I went to the Jesmond Dene Hotel in Newcastle to meet this Knut Auf Den Berg," he said, sitting behind his desk which has a large frame on it containing a pair of Downing's boots. "When he walked in my reaction was that he was here to empty the rubbish.

"He was unkempt, didn't come across as a football person at all. What first got me suspicious was that he never asked me how many players I had, what players I represented, did I have any set of accounts that I could show him, which are all questions that any potential buyer would ask if they were looking to buy your business.

"After about 15 to 20 minutes, he went outside to make a phone call, I would imagine he probably left some kind of recording device on the table. My comment to Peter was this sounds far to good to be true. When something sounds too good to be true it generally is. I warned Peter afterwards. Peter's response was that he'd been introduced to Knut by a guy from France he'd worked with for years."

That guy from France turned out to be Teni Yerima. Panorama claimed that both Yerima and Harrison said that Bolton boss Sam Allardyce accepted bungs. Elliott, who briefly had Paul Gascoigne under his wing, didn't feature in the programme. But ten days before transmission, he was named by the News of the World as one of the agents Panorama was to feature.

A day or so later, he says the BBC sent him a list of "false allegations". "It said I was aware of the business plan of Dynamic Soccer (the fabricated company looking to buy Elliott's agency), that it was to pay money to managers and scouts," said Elliott. "I wrote back and said 'Rubbish, I never saw any business plan'.

"Then I never heard anything until I got an e-mail on Monday. It said the programme will be aired tomorrow night 9pm. At two minutes to twelve on Tuesday we got a two-line letter saying I would not be on the show for production reasons. Which is a load of bullsh*t."

He now claims that he is guilty by association, without having done anything wrong. He feels that the professional reputation he has built up since starting his agency in 1989 - when his first major client was former Sunderland striker Don Goodman - is threatened.

As well as Downing, Elliott also has Adam Johnson, Tony McMahon, David Knight and Jonathan Franks on his books and claims his connection with the programme has already prevented him from signing another highly-rated youngster.

"I'm disappointed the BBC didn't have the courage to say we talked to X, Y and Z and they did nothing wrong. I think that would have made the programme more credible," said Elliott.

He prides himself on serving players properly because he deals with them on a local basis in the North-East, though he admits there are agents who operate within the guidelines and those who do not. "I've not been offered a bung or offered a bung in 20 years in football," he said. "The public perception of the programme will be that agents are in the firing line again. Agents will get blamed for everything, the same as usual"

He feels, though, that the programme might serve as a warning for Middlesbrough. Chelsea's head of youth development was seen offering Harrison £150,000 for the services of his client, England youth international Nathan Porritt, 15.

"I've a player the same as Nathan Porritt, Jonathan Franks," said Elliott. "I don't see why I would take a Middlesbrough lad and hawk him around the country, and looking at the figures mentioned by Arnesen I don't see a financial reason for doing it."