English football authorities will be watching a popular TV show with interest tonight as a team of loveable rogues take a fat cat agent "to the cleaners."
BBC's Hustle features a team of grifters who each week punish a greedy crook or unscrupulous type by scamming them for huge wads of cash.
This week their target is a football agent who's greed has brought a favourite club into the dangerous waters of administration.
Hustler Ash has more that a soft spot for the club, so he and the gang have to go after the agent.
Said a Premier League spokesman: "We will be watching this episode with great interest.
"Obviously, until the show airs we can't say what level of club is involved. If it's not a Premier League level outfit, then we probably won't give a monkey's.
"Also, if it's one of those clubs we see as an embarrassment, we won't be shedding too many tears either. We were, frankly, quite pleased to get shot of Portsmouth with their crappy ground in similar circumstances last season.
"But we have to watch where all that money goes you know. Clubs go to a lot of trouble to extract cash from their fans, what with over-priced shoddy replica shirts and the like.
"Seeing it all going to other people really sticks in the craw.
Hustle was in the news a few weeks ago when a scam the team pulled embarrassed security staff at the US Embassy in London's Grosvenor Square.
