Tao Xingying, the reporter who claimed that she was assaulted on Saturday by officials from the football association of Dalian said she and the newspaper would pursue the case with the Chinese Football Association and the All-China Journalists Association.

"I gave up reporting to the police in Dalian today, as all they could offer me was an experts' medical report. I thought that should be conducted in a hospital," Tao told China Daily on Sunday over the phone.

"Many people, including the players and translators from the Shanghai Shenhua soccer team as well as reporters from other media, said they will act as witnesses for me.

"Nicolas Anelka, captain of the Shanghai Shenhua team, said he will talk about the incident later to the press," she added.

Tao, a reporter from the Shanghai-based Xinmin Evening News, alleged that she was beaten by Guo Jun, secretary-general of the Dalian association, and another man from the association.

She said the attack took place as she and other reporters interviewed Shenhua's acting coach, Jean-Florent Ikwange Ibenge, in the press area after Shanghai Shenhua beat Dalian Shide 1-0 in Dalian, Liaoning province.

Guo grabbed Tao's neck, and the other man cuffed and kicked her and pulled her into a pool of water on the ground, according to witness Li Chuntian, a reporter from sports.sohu.com.

The incident occurred because of anger that the Dalian team had lost the match, Li said. Two policemen shoved the coach and two female reporters and asked them to leave, but Tao insisted they had the right to conduct interviews.

The Shanghai players got off the bus and asked for an explanation when they saw the fight, Li said, but Guo told the players not to get involved.

Ding Mengjie, a reporter from PPTV, a domestic online TV service, who recorded the incident with her video camera, said she was taken into an office by force. The man who assaulted Tao, whose name was unknown, confiscated the camera and forced Ding to delete the images, Ding said.

"The man even took away the memory card, although I repeatedly mentioned the importance of the card, which contained the video of the whole match and interviews," Ding said.

Tao said police officers at the scene did not try to intervene when she asked for help.

Officials from the Dalian association described the incident as overblown when some reporters asked them to comment.

Contact the writer at zhouwenting@chinadaily.com.cn