Alsatian dog forces a non-league match to be abandoned

A United Counties League Premier Division, England’s ninth tier match was called off with fewer than 10 minutes left after a spectator refused to control his dog.

Leicester Nirvana were leading home side GNG Oadby Town 2-1 in their United Counties League match when the referee decided a dog on the sidelines posed too much of a risk to the players.

“Never experienced a game not finishing due to a person and his dog both on loose,” tweeted Leicester Nirvana.

The Alsatian was jumping up against the pitchside barrier to bark at players.

It is not the first or most significant canine involvement in English football history.

Torquay were helped to a final-day relegation escape in 1987 after a pitchside police dog bit one of their players, creating seven minutes of injury time during which the Gulls scored a crucial equaliser.

Most famously of all, Pickles, a mixed-breed collie, found the World Cup beneath a hedge in south London in 1966, a week after it was stolen from an exhibition in Westminster and four months before Bobby Moore lifted it at Wembley.

BBC Sports