Salary cap set for Chinese soccer clubs

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The Chinese Football Association (CFA) has implemented a set of new rules and regulations for the 2019 season in an effort to promote a more competitive environment and more well-rounded financial fair play for the country's top flight.

The governing body of football in China has been concerned with clubs overspending in recent months and in a bid to prevent that, has introduced a salary cap which is part of a total expenditure limit that extends to transfers and bonuses.

"Irrational" investment has been a big worry for the CFA and thus, from now on, clubs have to be totally transparent with player contracts and stick to uniform accounting rules.

Chinese clubs have been told to stick to uniform accounting rules. /File photo

The Chinese Super League (CSL) starts in February or March and ends in November or December. In each season, each club plays each of the other clubs twice, once at home and another away. With 16 clubs currently in the Super League, teams play 30 games each, for a total of 240 games in the season.

The league has attracted a number of top-class foreign players from across the globe but its success hasn't made any substantial impact on the country's national team's performance.

Notably, China hasn't qualified for the World Cup finals since its only appearance in 2002 when the team lost all three group league matches.

The Chinese men's team is currently ranked 75th in the FIFA men's rankings while the women's team is ranked 15th.