A screen shot of the statement issued by the Chinese Basketball Association on its website on May 20, 2026

The Women's Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA) club Inner Mongolia's runner-up title from the 2023-2024 league season was revoked and two people from the club were banned for life from basketball, according to a statement issued by the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) on Wednesday. 

During the 2023-2024 WCBA league season, Guo Jiajie, general manager of Inner Mongolia, and player Zou Qijia sought improper benefits for the club and were convicted of the crime of offering bribes to non-state personnel (attempted). Guo and Zou were banned for life from engaging in basketball-related activities, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
 
Yang Zan, then head coach of Inner Mongolia, and Ma Jun, then deputy general manager of Shanxi, were found to have personally participated in, proposed, or assisted in match-fixing activities. Yang and Ma were banned for three years from engaging in basketball-related activities, according to the report. 
 
Inner Mongolia finished the season as runner-up after losing the finals to Sichuan. The club was stripped of its runner-up title and was fined 1 million yuan ($146,735), and had its registration with WCBA suspended for three years.
 
Inner Mongolia won WCBA titles in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. However, the club failed to register for the 2025-26 season due to debt issues, according to the China Business Journal. 
 
CBA has always maintained a "zero-tolerance and full accountability" stance toward match-fixing, gambling and other corrupt practices, and will show absolutely no leniency toward violations that cross red lines, handling them strictly and severely in accordance with laws and regulations, according to CBA. 

The association said it will use the case to promote broader reforms and governance improvements, and will soon launch a special campaign to strengthen discipline and rectify misconduct in Chinese basketball. The campaign aims to enforce competition discipline, eradicate unhealthy practices in the sport, prevent such negative influences from spreading into youth sports, comprehensively purify the basketball competition environment, enhance the industry's governance capacity and credibility, and promote the long-term healthy development of Chinese basketball.