The Chinese Super League is introducing a variety of monetary sustainability measures which will limit Chinese Super League salaries including a cap on salaries for foreign players of $3.3m (€3m).

News agency Xinhua reports that the league is additionally capping Chinese players’ salaries at 10m yuan ($1.45m/€1.3m), although Chinese national team players are often paid up to 12m yuan.

Teams won’t be permitted to spend quite 1.1bn yuan ($160m/€143m) in total during 2020, and salaries must account for no quite 60 per cent of their spending.

Chinese Football Association chairman Chen Xuyuan said: “Our clubs had an excessive amount of money burned and our football has not been run during a sustainable way. If we don’t take timely action, I fear it’ll collapse.”

There also are new rules on the amount of foreign players that teams can register and play. Reuters reports that, from this season, clubs can purchase up to 5 foreign players, up from four at the present , but can play only four in any match.

New rules on ‘naturalised’ Chinese players also are being introduced. Players who were born in China or have Chinese ancestry won’t be considered foreign players. Players who have had Chinese citizenship for quite five years or are eligible to play for the Chinese national team also are not considered foreign players.

The Chinese Football Association is keen to curb overspending by clubs on foreign stars. The association wants to enhance the commercial viability of CSL clubs, make them more attractive to investors, and to make more room for Chinese players to flourish.

Reuters reports that Chinese football authorities have tried before, with limited success, to rein in club spending. In 2017, it introduced a 100 per cent tax on foreign player transfers worth quite 45m yuan and domestic player transfers worth quite 20m yuan.

The latest rule changes arguably leave clubs a loophole to take advantage of , therein they are doing not cover bonuses that would be potentially wont to increase players’ remuneration.