'The cat of the match' gets Besiktas in trouble with UEFA

[March 22, 2018]    (Reuters) - Turkish soccer club Besiktas ended up in trouble with European soccer's governing body, UEFA, on Thursday, a day after a cat sneaked on to the pitch during their Champions League match against Bayern Munich.

UEFA opened disciplinary proceedings against Besiktas after referee Michael Oliver had to stop play in the second half when the feline slipped past security at Vodafone Park in Istanbul.

The cat leapt on an advertising hoarding before landing on the pitch and ran up and down the byline for a while before escaping back into the stands.

In a statement on Thursday, UEFA said that Besiktas had been charged with "insufficient organization" under Article 16 (1) of its disciplinary rules for allowing an "animal on the field of play".

The club were also charged for fans throwing objects and for blocked stairways. The case will be heard by the UEFA's Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body on May 31.

Bayern won 3-1 on Wednesday to go through to the quarter-finals 8-1 on aggregate over the two legs.

Thiago Alcantara and substitute Sandro Wagner both scored for Bayern, but the cat was voted "man of the match" in a poll on the German club's Twitter feed.

(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru, editing by Larry King)

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