On January 21, Beijing time, the Malaysian Badminton Federation held a press conference to officially announce the decision to suspend Li Zijia, who has Li Zongwei's successor, for a two-year ban, starting from January 18, 2022.
At the press conference, the top brass of the Malaysian Badminton Federation read out the decision to ban Li Zijia from international competitions starting from January 21, 2022. In addition, women's singles athlete Wu Yanqin was also banned for two years, starting on October 31, 2021 and ending on October 31, 2023. According to the rules of the BWF, an athlete must register with his or her badminton association to participate in any of its events. Therefore, the decision of Malaysia's general manager to ban Li Zijia means that the latter cannot represent Malaysia in any international competition under the BWF for two years, including the Tour and the World Championships.
Looking back at the timeline of Li Zijia's outfall with Da Ma Yu, the earliest was on December 30 last year when local media reported that he had received a sponsorship fee worth up to 6 million yuan. Entering 2022, Li Zijia's good friend, Wu Yanwei, who had originally announced his retirement, sought a comeback, and then revealed that he was blocked by Da Ma Yu to participate in the competition as a free person. On January 12, Li Zijia refuted rumors about the 6 million yuan sponsorship in an interview with the media, and revealed that his monthly salary in Da Ma Yu was only 12,000 yuan. Five days later, however, on January 17, Li Zijia had an hour-long conversation with the top brass of Da Ma Yu and confirmed his decision to "fly alone" as a free man. In the absence of success, Da Ma Yu finally made the decision to ban Li Zijia from participating in international competitions for two years.