Christmas Lunch Allegedly Goes Poorly for English Soccer Club [Update]

Once upon a time Christmas parties and English soccer clubs were a big deal, apparently. If you Google some variant of those terms you’re littered with links of all the bad things that have resulted from these festive holiday season gatherings. Lately teams have cut back on their parties in an attempt to try to avoid these sort of negative, unwanted headlines.

This year QPR didn’t even bother with an actual party, but had some sort of lunch Sunday with fellow London club Crystal Palace. According to some English tabloids, it didn’t go very well. The Sun claimed (via the Daily Mail) that a brawl started after someone spilled a drink on Rio Ferdinand, setting off a fight between players and pubgoers. Whatever exactly happened, QPR defender Steven Caulker was taken to the hospital afterward with a bloody head wound.

The club issued a statement in the wake of whatever happened confirming that Caulker needed treatment for a head injury but wasn’t involved in any fight. QPR chairman Tony Fernandes also tweeted this:

Got it?

The holidays are the best, aren’t they?

UPDATE: QPR keeper Robert Green also refuted the Sun’s claims, telling BBC Radio on Tuesday, “”If you wanted an accurate headline on the story, it would be ‘man falls over’.” (Now that’s a headline!)