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BEIJING -- The Chinese Football Association has decided not to punish any of its Olympic team players for an embarrassing fight while playing in London earlier this month, a state-run newspaper said Saturday.
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Seven members of the team were sent home early following the brawl during a match against English Second Division club Queens Park Rangers.
"Although our players take responsibility too, our investigation into the case shows that it does not rest with the national Olympic players to take responsibility for the fight," an unnamed official from the Chinese Football Association was quoted as saying by the Beijing Evening News.
"Under such circumstances, it's unfair to punish them," he said.
The China under-23 team's Feb. 7 match against QPR ended 15 minutes early with the English team leading 2-1 after players from both teams fought on the field. Chinese player Zheng Tao, who was left unconscious after the brawl, was hospitalized and suffered a broken jaw.
Calls to the CFA office were not answered and there was no comment on its Web site Saturday.
The official said 2007 was a critical year for the team in preparing for the 2008 Summer Olympics; "Therefore the CFA will not punish those players for this case. The CFA will instruct the national Olympic team to draw a lesson from this to prevent similar cases from happening again."
The fight started when Chinese player Gao Lin attempted to kick the ball while jumping into an opposing player. The two crashed to the ground and the fight began.
The China team arrived in England in late January at the invitation of Premier League club Chelsea, which is trying to get a foothold in the lucrative Chinese market. Chelsea announced a new Chinese-language Web site last month in Beijing.
QPR suspended assistant manager Richard Hill after the brawl, although the club did not specify for how long.
