China accepted the penalty of the Asian Basketball Association (ABA) when their national youth team forfeited to play at the Asian Under-18 Championships in Iran, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) said on Tuesday in a statement.

The official website of CBA, cba.gov.cn, released the statement, saying "The Techenical Committee of the Championships stood on the original decision to honor the 20-0 victory to Syria as the Chinese team left the court without informing the referees, and fined the Chinese team of 30,000 Swiss Franc (about 186,000 RMB)."

Li Chuanjiang, head coach of the Chinese U-18 team, protested referees' decisions during the third quarter of a quarterfinal match against Syria when China was leading by 46-41.

All the players were taken down to the bench by Li as he was protesting and didn't return after three minutes. The technical board decided China waived the right to continue to play and credited the victory to Syria, whose players were still on the court during the process.

"The head coach had irrational and improper behaviors when he protested against the referees' decisions, which violated the FIBA rules. That is the main reason for the issue. We are sorry to know that China might fail to advance into next round of the championships and lose the chance to play at next year's World Championships as well," the statement said.

The CBA took the affair as a lesson to all Chinese coaches, ordering them to learn more about the FIBA rules and to be aware of their behaviors on the court, both at domestic league and at internationals.

Source:Xinhua