Summary: In a strange and often surreal week inside world football, both the Premier League and the powers that be inside the halls of FIFA House each found new ways to test the boundaries of expectation in very different ways, highlighted by a highly entertaining match between Manchester United and Leicester City and a bizarre sports conference in Zurich where Sepp Blatter lectured the world on ethics from inside the embattled organization that leads world football. First up is football correspondent Graham Ruthven who helps us explore the many facets of what transpired in a week where the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham, Manchester City and Chelsea could only muster two points, while Frank Lampard delivered a stunning equalizer that seemed to punctuate a very unusual weekend in England. We examine the unique challenge placed before Louis van Gaal as he is faced with a number of fabulous acquisitions, a largely unbalanced squad and a big problem on defence which was repeatedly exposed and perhaps even further compromised by some strange decisions by the match official, Mark Clattenburg. We also visit concerns for Manchester City in the Champions League, the ongoing issues for Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool and Roberto Martinez as they head to the Merseyside Derby, as well as the issues facing Arsenal and Tottenham as they, too, stage the North London Derby this weekend. Other clubs discussed include Chelsea which appears to be in pole position as long as Diego Costa remains fit and healthy, the surprise of the early season at Southampton and the unchanging circumstances at Sunderland where a number of unresolved questions has left the club near the relegation zone once again. In part two, David Larkin of ChangeFIFA helps us reflect on a bold and often surreal visit to FIFA Headquarters in Zurich for an Ethics Conference held in the midst of a watch scandal and how Sepp Blatter and the Garcia investigation intersect a number of odd declarations from the FIFA President on the matter of ethics in football administration. We visit the entire experience from a first hand account of how the spin fails to match the reality inside the embattled organization, and what ensues as key questions are delivered in the matter of Human Rights in Qatar, what should be the responsibility of sponsors in light of these abuses, and direct confrontation with Michael Garcia as his report on the biggest, final scandal is handed off to the judiciary wing of the FIFA Ethics process which seems as perverse as holding an ethics conference at its headquarters in the first place. The account is both revealing and troubling at the same time and serves as the backdrop to the many scandals which plague the world governing body and how evolving procedures only serve to tangle the scent on real accountability.
