Limit on players' pay is welcome, but it alone can't improve Chinese soccer

The Chinese Football Association announced on Friday that a ceiling would be imposed on its budget for 2019. The CFA also said that a soccer player's annual salary should not exceed 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) before tax, although the probable candidates for the selection of the Chinese team for the 2019 Asian Cup and 2022 World Cup would get 20 percent more. Thepaper.cn comments:

For long there have been complaints that Chinese soccer players, especially those playing for the top clubs, get extremely high salaries but perform poorly in major international competitions. Worse, CFA Super League clubs waste increasingly huge amounts of money to support the luxurious lifestyle of their players.

In other words, Chinese soccer players get proportionately much higher pay than their performance. No wonder many have called the limit on soccer players' pay a move that has been long overdue. Micro blog, China's social network equivalent of Twitter, is full of soccer fans supporting the move.
The wide public support reflects people's discontent with Chinese soccer as a whole. But it is doubtful whether the new policy, which is still on paper, can be implemented in reality.

Earlier this year, several entertainment celebrities were reported to have avoided tax by signing contracts showing lower remuneration but actually getting much higher amounts. Proper supervision of soccer clubs is needed to prevent them from using the same trick to reward their players.

Besides, the 20 percent rule is too vague. A large number of soccer players are candidates for selection for the Chinese team for the Asian Cup and World Cup, and if they all get 20 percent more, that would make the 10-million-yuan ceiling ineffective.

More important, to produce world-class soccer players, China needs to establish a comprehensive training system that encourages youngsters to play the sport. But that would be a long-term process.

Therefore, the limit on soccer players' pay is welcome, but the move alone cannot improve Chinese soccer.