Gascoigne remains in dispute with his club Gascoigne's Chinese home

The Chinese B-League team asked the Chinese FA to contact English football chiefs after the former England star failed to report for club duties on 10 June.

But the English FA insisted that any investigation into a possible breach of Gascoigne's contract is a matter for Chinese officials - not governing bodies in England.

"We have absolutely nothing to do with this," an FA spokesman told this website.

"The player is not registered in this country, he has a contract with a club which is not affiliated to us and so we have no authority to enforce or do anything else on this subject.

"The most we would be in a position to do is to advise whether or not we have actually seen Paul Gascoigne or have any knowledge of his whereabouts.

"Whether or not they have contacted us, it would have been just an informal call to us to see whether we knew anything about where he was or if we'd seen him in The Sun (newspaper) or something like that.

"There really would be no formal assistance we could provide."

Gascoigne went missing after his failure to return from a break in the Chinese season resulted in an ugly contract dispute with his club.

Until the contract problems are resolved, Paul will be staying put Gascoigne's agent Wes Saunders

The 36-year-old's agent Wes Saunders told this website last week that the midfielder is resting in England while he waits for the Chinese club to make their next move.

"Paul hasn't gone back to China simply because there are outstanding issues about money owed to him and until those are resolved he'll be staying put," Saunders said.

"He remains fully focused and wants this resolved amicably. The club are desperate to get him back out there too, so we will see what comes of it.

"The ball is back in their court. They have got to come back to us with some kind of solution as to how to put this to bed."

Gascoigne signed a one-year contract with Gansu Tianma in January but despite scoring on his league debut his spell in China has been dogged by problems.

The midfielder flew to America seeking treatment for depression in April and World Health Organisation advice urging travellers not to visit China during the Sars crisis prompted Gascoigne to stay away.

Gansu Tianma are now considering taking legal action for what they consider to be a breach of contract.