PATTAYA, Thailand, Feb 7 Thailand have escaped disciplinary action following their walkof

PATTAYA, Thailand, Feb 7 (Reuters) Thailand have escaped disciplinary action following their walkoff protest in the first leg of last week's ASEAN championship final against Singapore, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said today.

South East Asian soccer chiefs met with the AFC and decided to issue the Thais with a reprimand after the entire team stormed off the pitch to protest against a dubious late penalty, the AFC said on its Web site.

The ASEAN Football Federation refused to comment, saying a statement would be released later on Wednesday explaining its decision not to punish the Thais, who refused to allow the disputed spot kick to be taken for 15 minutes.

Singapore converted the penalty to take a 2-1 aggregate lead, before securing a 1-1 draw in the second leg to win their third ASEAN championship title.

The penalty incident caused outrage in soccer-mad Thailand, prompting thousands of Singaporeans to cancel plans to attend the return leg for fear of reprisals.

Thai newspapers had launched scathing attacks on the Singapore team, dubbing them ''cheats'' and ''robbers''.

The incident came amid growing bad blood between the two countries following last year's $3.8 billion takeover by Singapore's Temasek of telecoms giant Shin Corp, which belonged to the family of ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thailand's coup-installed government recently suspended a nine-year exchange programme with the city state and tore up an invitation to its foreign minister after Thaksin was the guest of a Singapore cabinet minister.

REUTERS PM VV1126