CHELSEA

fans are unnecessarily beaten with batons leaving the Nou Camp, but it is Besiktas who UEFA have charged with insufficient organisation for, among other offences, letting a cat run on the field. At the risk of sounding like Old McDonald, the odd animal loose in the paddock is one of those events that adds to the gaiety of the occasion, like the referee falling over or the floodlights packing up. Many years ago, when a feline invaded the pitch at Anfield, some genius on The Kop started a chant. ‘A cat! A cat! A cat, a cat, a cat!’ Brilliant. That’s how you respond. It isn’t ‘insufficient organisation’ — it’s harmless, diversionary fun. As football was, too, once.