It's not often that the subject BBC Radio 5 Live was set up to cover - all aspects of sport, including its connections to business and politics - becomes the subject every other news channel on the planet is scrambling to talk about.

But it happened on Wednesday, when we woke to the news that seven high-ranking officials of FIFA, football's world governing body, had been arrested in Zurich on suspicion of fraud. Two more were arrested later in the day, along with four executives from sports management companies.

As they say in the newsrooms, it was a fast-moving story, and by teatime it had become dizzying for any listener of 5 Live's drive-time show. One minute Adrian Chiles was interviewing FA chairman Greg Dyke about the allegations and we were hearing Dyke liken the FIFA electoral congress to one of those North Korean political rallies where flunkies blindly acclaim the fearless leader, in this case controversial FIFA president Sepp Blatter. The next minute it was over to New York for a live press conference with someone called Loretta Lynch, who could be a country and western singer but is in fact the first African-American woman to hold the position of US Attorney General. Later we heard from the head of the FBI, no less, who managed to use the correct terminology, referring to "football" instead of "sawker". Yes, things were so serious even the Yanks were getting it right.

By a blazing stroke of luck, Wednesday was also the day BBC Radio 5 Live had scheduled There Is Only One Sepp Blatter (8pm), a documentary-style focus on FIFA's heid bummer. He was not, at the time of writing, one of those arrested or under suspicion.

The usual way of these 5 Live programmes is that we hear snippets from pre-recorded interviews and then a panel of regulars and interested parties talk around what we've just heard. In this case it was sports journalist Gabriele Marcotti, former FA head Mark Palios and reporter Richard Conway and, just to underline that democracy and sport are still on nodding terms in Britain if not in Zurich, their musings and mutterings were punctuated by regular updates from Bristol City's Ashton Gate ground, where Worcester were playing Bristol at rugby.

On the subject of obscure accounting procedures such as he said he saw FIFA practice, Palios could bore for England, Scotland, Wales or any other football association he threw in his lot with. Marcotti was punchier, giving the thoughts and opinions of Blatter's daughter and confidant Corrine the scepticism they deserved. The programme was commendably even-handed, however, running through Blatter's achievements and underlining what he has done for those footballing countries outside the Europe-South America power base. Even so, when we heard Corinne Blatter say of her father and his critics "I think they will only realise what he has done when he has gone", it was hard not to turn cynic and think that's kind of what the man himself is hoping too.

The rugby finished 30 all, by the way.