THE Chinese Football Association (CFA) has instructed Chinese clubs to suspend player contract talks as it plans to introduce a raft of new regulations, including a salary cap in early December this year.

In a notice released Wednesday, the Chinese soccer governing body demanded all professional clubs delay signing new contracts or extending contracts with domestic players in the senior and reserve squads.

“The new regulations are made for promoting the healthy development of Chinese domestic leagues, which plan to relieve the financial burden of clubs and build a standardized salary system, transfer market, supervision system and youth system,” said the notice.

Xinhua quoted a source saying that “a strict salary cap on domestic players, new policies on foreign players, naturalized players and players transfers” will all be included in the new regulations.

“The clubs have reached an effective consensus on reducing the financial burden and increasing the protection of youth training,” the source noted.

“Nearly one third of the clubs have unpaid wages, and even Chinese Super League clubs are unsustainable. The leagues have bubbles, which are very dangerous. If the leagues are unstable, the youth training and the national team will be greatly affected.”

In addition, the source also claimed that the new policies will encourage high-level young Chinese footballers to play overseas.

“The CFA doesn’t want them to stay in domestic leagues and make a great fortune. They should learn from Japanese players to explore top-level soccer overseas,” said the source.(Xinhua)