Chinese Football Association (CFA) has proposed a series of drastic measures, allowing the football governing body to curb soaring spending on foreign stars.
According to the statement, CFA has planned to impose a special fee on any club who has a trade deficit in a single transfer market.
“The club would be paying the same amount of money as their outlay on player recruitment to the Chinese Football Development Fund,” the CFA said in a statement.
On the other hand, the highest authority of Chinese football would use money from the fee for the development of young players, the promotion of grassroots football and charities. The regulation would be effective from the upcoming summer transfer window.
“The new measure aims to promote the healthy and stable development of the professional football and rein in the trend of keeping up with the Joneses and showing off overpriced signings,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, the CFA also laid out a new rule to encourage Chinese U23 players playing more regularly.
“Each Chinese Super League and Chinese League One club will be required to field the same number of local U23 players as their foreign counterparts in each domestic match. The regulation will be effective from 2018.”
These regulations can be seen as the effort of CFA to cool an overheated transfer market after the Chinese Super League witnessed many breakthrough deals such as Oscar, Hulk, and Ramires.
According to reports, a number of Chinese clubs are interested in signing several Europe-based high profile footballers, including Chelsea’s Diego Costa and Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.