foxsports
The Czech football federation has punished Sparta Prague for fielding players the club claimed were not able to play an international match due to illness.
Federation spokesman Jaroslav Kolar says the disciplinary committee fined Sparta 750,000 koruna ($41,900) Monday and banned coach Josef Chovanec for 10 weeks. Strikers Vaclav Kadlec and Tomas Pekhart were banned for two matches.
Kadlec and Pekhart were allegedly ill with a virus and unable to play Feb. 9 for the Czech under-21 team at the Netherlands. Using different names on their shirts, they played against Zenit St. Petersburg in Spain in a Feb. 8 warmup for last week's Europa League match against Liverpool.
Sparta issued an apology after Zenit published photos from the match.
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