The Chinese Super League is set to place a wage and transfer cap as the Chinese government moves to prevent local top tier clubs from "burning" money through absurd acquisitions of European players.
There is no timetable yet on when the new policy will take effect, but the discussions began in the wake of the two recent mega-money transfers of Oscar and Carlos Tevez to Shanghai SIPG and Shanghai Shenhua respectively.
SIPG signed the Brazilian star for $75 million from English Premier League club Chelsea on Dec. 23, giving him a weekly wage of $615,000 while Shenhua acquired the Argentine forward from Boca Juniors for almost $50 million and granted him a $757,000-a-week salary, making him the highest-paid footballer in the world.
The Business Insider reported that an unnamed Chinese Super League club offered Cristiano Ronaldo $300 million last summer but the Real Madrid superstar and three-time Ballon d'Or winner rejected the offer.
The report noted that as top European players were gradually drawn to the Far East by massive paychecks, European club coaches have started to "speak out against the Chinese Super League", which included Bayern Munich manager Carlo Ancelotti, Chelsea boss Antonio Conte, and Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger.
"I believe the biggest pride is to compete at the top level. I can understand when a player is 32 or 33 can have a massive contract in China and secure the rest of his life," said Wenger. "But today, top-level competition is in England. You want to be in England."
According to a spokesperson for China's General Administration of Sport, Chinese clubs are "burning money" with their current practice so the government will "set a cap for clubs' expenditures for buying players, and inhibit unreasonable investment," as reported by the Mirror.
"We are going to regulate, curb the expensive purchases of foreign players, and limit in a reasonable manner the high incomes of the players," the spokesman continued.
The new cap is also said to be aimed to "strengthen examination and supervision of clubs' financial affairs, progressively control clubs' expenditures on first-team players and ensure favorable financial conditions."