The Chinese Football Association has imposed major restrictions on club spending before the start of the 2020 season, including restrictions on salaries for foreign and domestic players in the country's bid to avoid financial crises.
And contracting with any foreign player in the Chinese Premier League during the upcoming winter transfer period will not exceed three million euros after taxes, which is the first time that a maximum salary limit has been applied in the competition more than ten years ago.
In addition, the Chinese Confederation set a maximum limit of 10 million yuan (1.4 million dollars) for the salaries of local players.
Also, clubs will not be allowed to spend more than 1.1 billion yuan during the next season, with the salary value not exceeding 60% of this amount.
"Our clubs spend a lot of money while our soccer professional is not progressing well. If we don't take action sooner, I am afraid the game will collapse," Xinhua news agency quoted the head of the local federation, Chen Suoyuan, as saying.
The local association announced these regulations and decisions after its meeting on Wednesday, but these regulations do not include bonuses that give clubs some flexibility to continue contracting with prominent foreign players.
The clubs were also allowed to sign a fifth foreign player, while the current regulation stipulates the inclusion of four players, but it will only be allowed to involve four of them on the field at the same time.
Officials regularly seek to limit the club's massive spending to bring in foreign players after the competition saw huge contracts before the 2017 season with the addition of Brazilian Oscar and Argentine Carlos Tevez for huge salaries.
Later that year, he imposed a 100% tax on foreign players' transfer deals of more than 45 million yuan, while the same condition was applied to deals of domestic players exceeding twenty million yuan.
Private sector has poured into football in China since Xi Jinping, a football fanatic who wants to develop the game in the country, assumed the presidency in 2013.
Real Madrid striker Gareth Bale was the last major player to be linked to the move to China after moving away from his French coach Zinedine Zidane’s squad, but his move to JiangsuSuning failed before the transfer period ended last summer.
Despite the influx of foreign talent into the Chinese league, this did not raise the national team level, as it failed to qualify for the World Cup since its first participation in 2002 in South Korea and Japan.
The Chinese team, which ranks second in the first group in the qualifiers for the Qatar World Cup 2022 and eight points behind the group leaders, are struggling to qualify for the World Cup, as Italian coach Marcello Lippi resigned last month and no new coach was appointed.