Column | Chinese Super League missing a trick while everyone is making money off the China market
If the Chinese Football Association really wants to develop youth they must improve playing standards in short the term by allowing clubs to sign more foreign players
A look at the global football clubs crawling over each other to enter the market, or the most recent El Clasico kick-off time, tells you everyone wants a piece of China – so why doesn’t the Chinese Super League?
The Chinese Football Association seems to be doing everything in its power to hamstring interest in the CSL, both at home and abroad, with a series of regulations harming the product on the pitch.
The transfer rule levied by the CFA ahead of last season, which effectively makes imports twice the price with a 100 per cent tax sent to a central fund for grass-roots development, has resulted in more modest expenditure by CSL clubs.
Clubs are sure to look for creative loopholes to get around the rule. The biggest name to arrive in China last summer was Cologne striker Anthony Modeste at Tianjin Quanjian, but despite a reported fee of €36 million (US$43.4 million) it’s believed to been an initial loan deal with an option to buy, circumventing the tax.
Beijing Guo’an are reportedly lining up the next high-profile foreign import to China in Cedric Bakambu, who has nine goals in 15 appearances for La Liga club Villarreal this season and at 26 should have his best years ahead of him.