Chinese football authorities to impose salary cap next season

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) on Wednesday unveiled a series of policies including a salary cap, hoping to improve its professional clubs' financial health.

In a closed-door meeting with investing representatives of the Chinese Super League (CSL) clubs, CFA chairman Chen Xuyuan said they have decided to strictly impose the salary cap from next season following adequate discussion with the clubs.

According to the CFA policies, CSL local player will not be paid more than 10 million yuan RMB (1.45 million US dollars) before tax every year, bonus excluded, while the annual salary for any foreign player cannot surpass three million euro after tax.

Chen, the former president of Shanghai SIPG club, vowed to arrest the financial worsening of the Chinese football clubs when he was voted as CFA chairman in August.

"Our clubs had too much money burned and our professional football has not been run in a sustainable way," he said. "If we don't take timely action, I fear it will collapse."

During the meeting, CFA also decided to limit the overall spending of each club, ruling that no club will be allowed to spend more than 1.1 billion yuan RMB (159 million US dollars) next season, and its salary amount will not surpass 60 per cent of its overall spending.

Yang Nan, a board member of Henan Jianye club, said the CFA policies have been welcomed by the CSL clubs.

"Any club cannot afford the repeated loss of billions of yuan, and there will be no steady investment anymore, if this cannot be stopped," she said.

"In order to assure sustainable development of our leagues, these CFA policies must be enforced strictly," Yang added.

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