Every so often, we're reminded of the distance between those who have played the game professionally and those of us who have not.

Spitting at an opponent is sure to remind us of this gulf.

The incident between Jonny Evans and Papiss Cisse last played out the way you'd expect. Robbie Savage, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes all howled at how disgusted they were. Scholes, writing in The Independent, stuck up for his former teammate ("not that sort of

player") and insisted he was merely spitting at the ground, while adding that spitting is "horrible" and "deeply provocative".

Meanwhile, a number of columnists pointed out that, while spitting is unpleasant, it's somewhat absurd that it should carry a stiffer penalty (six games) than racially abusing an opponent. Not to mention, of course, what were once known as "reducers" -- tackles designed to deliberately "hurt" opponents and which, in some cases, ended careers.

You sort of feel that never the twain shall meet. Evans maintained his innocence to the point that he went so far as to say it never happened ("I was totally unaware of any spitting incident"). That's in keeping with the Scholes line that Evans spat at the ground without even realizing it, some kind of reflex action, which explains why he says he was "unaware" of it and was "totally surprised by any suggestion of spitting."

Cisee took a different angle, issuing the most thorough of apologies:

to his teammates, to Newcastle fans, to Evans and to "every football fan who saw the incident". He sounded like a man throwing himself to the mercy of the court.

It remains the great taboo for football folk, which is why the pair are likely to face a stiff penalty. It may be hard for the rest of us to fully understand why such an action should be singled out for such a particular contempt.

Scholes wrote that spitting is "as unacceptable in the game as it is in the street."

Well, no actually. If you walk up to someone on the street and intentionally shatter his knee cap, you're going to prison. And you'll probably be similarly prosecuted if you go and racially abuse them. But if you merely go up to someone and spit on them, odds are, you won't face the same degree of punishment.

Football has its own code. And maybe that's not a bad thing, even if it's hard for those of us outside the magic circle to fully understand it.

LAURENT Blanc's season pretty much hangs on a knife-edge. Squeak past Chelsea on Wednesday night - a scoreless draw will do - and there's a chance he hangs on to his job. A slim chance mind you - the Paris St. Germain boss has been hammered by his critics on a weekly basis all season long and the long shadow of Diego Simeone looms over the Parc des Princes - but a chance nonetheless.

But go out in the Round of 16 and the rest of the year evaporates.

The fact that PSG could win a domestic Treble - they're in the final of the French League Cup, the semifinal of the French Cup and, going into the weekend, were one point off the pace in Ligue 1 - would become nearly insignificant, at least as far as him keeping his job.

Why?

First off, there's the fact that they have 11 fewer points than they did at the same stage last season. In fact, this season, they have gained less points after 27 matches than every season since 2010-11, before the Qatari money landed in Paris.

Then there's the fact that PSG have shown no forward progress.

Blanc's game plan remains get the ball to Ibrahimovic and wait for something to happen. Like most men who have managed the big Swede before him, his teams simply don't play well, though they usually win because they find a way to "Zlatan" the opposition. It's why he only lasted one year with Pep Guardiola. The problem is Ibrahimovic is now

33 and won't be around forever.

Most of all, there's the sense that Blanc has no control over his squad. When the likes of Ibrahimovic or Thiago Silva have a problem, they go straight to Blanc's boss, Nasser Al-Khelaifi and usually get their way. Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi were so impressed with Blanc's disciplien that they ignored PSG's winter training session in Morocco and hung out on the beach in South America for a few extra days. It earned them a suspension, but they didn't seem too bothered.

With two more years of FFP spending restrictions PSG won't be able to spend their way to the big time. And with a squad packed with huge earners, selling to reinvest will be tricky as well. Blanc knows this, just as he knows the job might not be quite that appealing to Simeone or anybody else who might be lined up to replace him. Yet, equally, he's well aware that unless he shows some kind of forward progress, he won't be around next year.

Winning a league when you've had a net spend of £42m and the rest of the league combined actually took in some £90m more than they gave out is not such a great feat. Especially when this comes on the heels of several seasons of massive spending and when you have a wage bill that is seven times that of your closest opponent.

IT went nearly unnoticed. But it may offer the tiniest glimmer of hope for those who believe that after forty years at FIFA - 17 of them as President - it's time for Sepp Blatter to exit stage left.

CONMEBOL, the South American confederation, failed to endorse him for the presidency when they met last week. They didn't back any of the other three candidates and the official explanation is that they simply never brought the motion to a vote, but it's still noteworthy since South America's support had always been automatic, the ultimate "safe seat".

How to explain this? The demise of Ricardo Teixeira, the Brazilian power-broker and long-time Blatter ally now facing a host of corruption allegations and the death of Julio Grondona, the long-time head of the Argentine FA and FIFA's influential Finance Committee have a lot to do with it. There has been a generational change and while the newcomers aren't necessarily averse to Blatter, they're willing to bargain hard to get the best deal for their part of the world. And that means making sure the FIFA President does not take their support for granted.