Calls for Financial Control in Chinese Football

A spokesman for China’s General Administration of Sport (GAS) has stated that salary caps should be introduced in Chinese football to limit escalating spending by Chinese Super League.

In the wake of extensive spending by numerous CSL clubs, calls are being made to instead focus the vast sums into grass roots development of homegrown talent.

The Chinese national football team currently sit 82nd in the world rankings, below the Cape Verde Islands and St Kitts and Nevis, with football enthusiast president Xi Jinping vocal in his ambitions to make China a global footballing superpower in the coming decades.

The substantial investments in the game so far have come in the form of marquee signings by Chinese Super League clubs. Prominent international players Oscar, Carlos Tevez and Axel Witsel have all joined the CSL in recent weeks; with the fees and wages being paid dwarfing the players’ prior deals.

The GAS spokesman suggested a number of reforms, designed to limit the financial implications of the CSL and to further develop Chinese footballers.