According to a Chinese government spokesperson, the government intends to limit the amount of money the country's Football clubs are spending on high profile international footballers. The statement comes amidst more talk of Chinese football clubs spending big.
A record breaking year
Over the past few months, Shanghai SIPG spent £52 on Brazilian attacking midfielder Oscar, who will reportedly earn an astonishing £400,000 a week, and Shanghai Shenhua made Carlos Tevez the world's highest paid player, paying the Argentinian striker an eye watering £615,000 a week- which translates into £1 per second and £88,000 a day.
To put these numbers in context of other footballer's wages, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, two players who have unquestionably sat on a pedestal as the world's best players after years of trading Ballon D'Or wins, earn £365,000 a week.
In a lengthy statement to the press, the unnamed spokesperson of the general administration stated that Chinese clubs cannot continue to burn money at the rate they are doing, citing that it is an unsustainable model to do business. Furthermore, the spokesperson said: "as a government, we intend to regulate and restrain high priced signings and make reasonable restrictions on footballer's exorbitant incomes. In seasons to come, we intend to implement an upper limit to how much clubs can spend on transfer fees and wages.
We must ensure that we build hundred year-clubs, removing insolvent football clubs from our leagues". In December 2016, the Chinese Super League announced that they will also lower the number of overseas players per squad to five.
Last year alone, Chinese clubs broke the Asian transfer record a total of four times.
Club's reckless spending appears to have been inspired by comments made by President Xi Jinping, who said that he intended to transform China into a "footballing superpower comparable to the European elite".
More to come?
Despite today's statement, spending doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon. According to recent reports, Chinese Super League team Shanghai SIPG, who are managed by former Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas, are planning a world record transfer bid of £125,000,000 for Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre Emerick Aubameyang.