The Chinese Basketball Association has imposed a three-year competition ban on young prospect Li Yize, a former player on the country’s U18 national squad, for falsifying his age and identification to gain unfair advantages in competition, the association announced on Wednesday.

The ban was part of the results of an investigation launched by the CBA on April 11 after Li’s impressive performance at the U18 team’s warm-up tournament raised questions over his identification due to the suspicious resemblance between his appearance and that of another young player named Zhang Hanbo, who was also born and raised in Hubei province, as well as Li, yet was supposed to be older than Li.

According to the CBA’s disciplinary and ethical committee, the investigation confirmed that Li, registered with a birth date of March 27, 2008, is the same player as Zhang, who was actually born on March 19, 2006.

Using a falsified new identify and new name to compete at the U18 level with the advantage of being two years older, according to the CBA, has constituted a serious violation of relevant rules in player registration and competition management, a CBA statement said.

The official punishment also includes sanctions on other relevant individuals and units found responsible for the age fraud.

Four management and coaching staff members with Hubei Municipal Sports Bureau’s basketball and volleyball administrative center — Jiang Yuan, Yin Xiayan, Wang Chao, and Cheng Bangbang — have been held accountable for facilitating the age fraud due to negligence and failure to verify the athlete’s personal information, the CBA said.

They also received identical three-year bans from participating in any CBA-organized competition or event for their involvement in the violation.

Apart from the three-year suspension on Li — barring him from all CBA-affiliated events starting on June 10 — the CBA has ordered the athlete to correct his registered age and other personal credential information.

Institutional sanctions were also enforced. The men’s youth team under the Hubei sports bureau has had its ranking in the 2025 national U18 championship revoked and has been suspended from participating in any national tournaments for three years. Two local youth sports academies Li used to train and compete with — the Wuhan Sports University’s affiliated sports school and Xiaogan Sports and Art School — were also hit with a three-year ban from participating in respective youth competitions and events.

To curb age fraud and standardize youth basketball development, the CBA has urged all regional basketball organizations, training bases and sports schools to draw lessons from the case, rectify irregular practices, and establish long-term regulatory mechanisms.

The association will launch a comprehensive nationwide inspection targeting age falsification in youth basketball players. A new athlete competition record entry mechanism will be implemented to optimize registration and participation documentation procedures.

A special verification protocol will be set up for newly emerged senior-age young players with blank competition records, enabling targeted screening and dynamic tracking of suspicious registrations.

Strict identity and file reviews will be enforced for all new recruits joining national youth basketball teams to eliminate registration irregularities. The CBA also pledged to keep public supervision channels open, striving to build a fair, transparent, and standardized development environment for Chinese grassroots and youth basketball, the association said.