On July 26, the third round of the men's football Group A preliminary competition of the National Games ended, with Beijing defeating Tianjin 3-1 to secure the top spot in the group. The Tianjin team not only had three players sent off during the match they lost, but also almost all the players participated in chasing and attacking the referee after the game. Substitute player No. 12 Zhao Shitong chased the on-duty referee He Zhibiao for nearly 100 meters after the game, tackled him to the ground, hit his face on the ground and then threw several punches, thus sparking a fierce battle.
Three players were penalized and almost caused a walkout. If the chase and attack after the game was the "main course", then the shoving that occurred when No. 14 Liu Qing was shown a red card by He Zhibiao at the 90th minute was the "appetizer". Prior to this, Tianjin's No. 9 Liang Jie and No. 10 Ma Leilei had already been sent off. When Liang Jie was penalized for intentional stepping, Tianjin's goalkeeper Li Gen ran 60 meters from the goal to the incident location near the center circle, shouting loudly and questioning the referee while yelling: "We won't play, we won't play."