1. They're manipulating the association draw engine. It's a 2* or 3* team now, but they'll buy 8 players from the transfer market and take 3 loans on Friday.
2. The 0 points can be due to two things. Leaving the association to play friendlies against friends in other association. And, leaving the association to join an association with an alt team and use the alternate accounts rests to train the players of their main team. It's only a max of 5 rests than can be used per day this way, but it's enough to build a 7* player or two per season.