'Didn't we have fun...?'

Working with the late, great Andrew Jennings, investigative journalist, scourge of FIFA, the IOC, and many others

Three years ago today we received the very, very sad news that my friend and former comrade-in-arms Andrew Jennings had died suddenly after a short illness. Andrew was, without doubt, one of the most extraordinary investigative journalists of his or any other generation, personally responsible for dragging the institutionally corrupt practices of both the International Olympic Committee and FIFA into the light of day over many years. He was venerated by both journalists and sports fans alike, the world over,

I first got to know him when he was at the BBC, working on Brass Tacks, and I was Time Out news editor back in the late 1980s. We both had an interest in stories about crime and police corruption and he was incredibly generous with material he uncovered which he was not able to use himself. He joined World In Action in 1985 when the BBC dropped an investigation into police corruption in the Met.

I still have, and am enormously grateful for, a copy of a letter he wrote to WIA’s then editor Ray Fitzwalter telling him to hire me, which he did, kick starting my career in television journalism.

AJ had left WIA by the time I joined in 1989 but we stayed in close touch. Then in 1996, after writing two books about Olympic corruption, he brought in a story about the activities of Hamilton Bland, the BBC’s so-called “Voice of Swimming”. I was assigned to produce it. Bland had made fortunes as the Amateur Swimming Association’s pools consultant and as operator of its badge scheme.

Over two programmes we investigated allegations of corruption in his first role, and naked profiteering in the second. Bland was sacked by both the BBC and the ASA as a result, though a police investigation went nowhere. The target wasn’t as formidable as the IOC or FIFA but it was a great watch and showed how you didn’t have to mince your words for lawyers when Andrew was in charge of gathering the evidence.

We next came to work together, at BBC Panorama where I was Deputy Editor and the executive producer on his films till I left in 2007. He had written another book about Olympic corruption and we hired him as consultant on an investigation called Buying the Games, where we went undercover to show how IOC votes could be bought.

And then he turned his attention to FIFA.

With nothing more to go on than whispered rumours that the organisation was riddled with corruption, Andrew turned up at a FIFA press conference and asked FIFA boss Sepp Blatter: “Mr Blatter, have you ever taken a bribe?”

Cue an explosion of outraged indignation from the platform - but the message had gone out and a week later Andrew was at a furtive car park meeting where a source turned over a car boot full of documents. It would be the first of many such meetings and life for FIFA was never to be the same again.

He brought the story to Panorama where we made “The Beautiful Bung: Corruption and the World Cup”. It was at an early planning meeting that Panorama editor Mike Robinson looked AJ up and down and said, “Columbo…”

AJ embraced it. From then on, the shabby raincoat became a established feature of his on screen persona.

You can imagine how chuffed I was, when writing this, to rediscover these words he penned just after we broadcast "The Beautiful Bung":

"We'd never have got on the road without the courage of Editor Mike Robinson to commission us. He thought Colombo and didn't expect some Clouseau.

“And we couldn't have kept going without the remorseless support of deputy editor Andy Bell. We called him night and day from faraway places and his wisdom kept us out of trouble. He also learned his tradecraft at World In Action".

It has to be said that the BBC profited handsomely when ITV shut down World In Action 24 years ago. So many top drawer journalists and producers made their way to White City. Even the current, superb, editor of Panorama, Karen Wightman, learned much of her trade there, including an early investigation back in 1997 starring Andrew Jennings.

Andrew made, I think, five FIFA films in total for Panorama and in a copy of his book “Foul! The secret world of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals” which he gave me, he wrote:

“Yet again, didn’t we have fun!”

We most certainly did.

Photos: AJ in full Columbo mode accosts Sepp Blatter; and a homage from Brazil football fans;