Chinese clubs whistled for 'money burning' speed

The General Administration of Sports of China will impose sanctions to limit the country's teams' reckless spending on players in recent times.

Chinese football has just been shaken by two blockbuster deals that brought Oscar from Chelsea to Shanghai SIPG and Carlos Tevez from Boca Juniors to Shanghai Shenhua. Oscar cost $76 million and earned $490,000 a week. For Tevez, the figures are $90 million and $754,000 a week respectively.

Superstars like Oscar are changing the face of Chinese football, helping it gain global recognition, exciting fans but also worrying sports regulators. Photo: Reuters.

Before these two deals, Chinese football clubs had spent mountains of money to buy a series of big names, such as Pelle, Ramires, Hulk, Alex Teixeira, Paulinho... That speed of spending money on one hand turned China into an ideal destination for many famous football stars in Europe, but on the other hand made the country's sports managers worried.

A spokesperson for the China General Administration of Sport (CGAS) recently said that football clubs are "burning money". In a message posted on the agency's website on January 5, CGAS described the massive spending spree as "a worrying phenomenon".

CGAS said it would "strengthen inspection and supervision of football clubs' finances, move towards controlling spending on first-team players and ensuring good financial conditions".

But while CGAS is impatient and blowing the whistle, Chinese football continues to shock the world with numbers. At the end of 2016, super agent Jorge Mendes revealed that a Chinese team had offered to buy Cristiano Ronaldo for $316 million and was willing to pay him $105 million a year.

Over the past two days, many other rumors have suggested that Shanghai SIPG, the team that just bought Oscar, is offering Dortmund the Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for $157 million.

The level of spending by Chinese clubs is raising concerns in Europe. Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) and Antonio Conte (Chelsea) are two of the big names in European football who have openly expressed concern about players being lured by the financial appeal of playing in China. Conte has even gone so far as to say that Chinese clubs are a threat to world football.

The 2017 Chinese Super League will start next March and end in October. Last season, Guangzhou Evergrande won the championship, with Jiangsu Suning and Shanghai SIPG taking second and third place respectively.

According to VNE