(Yicai Global) Dec. 14 -- The Chinese Football Association is slashing wages by as much as 60 percent as it reins in excessive spending to save the Chinese Super League, which did not play a single match this year, from collapse, it said today.

The average gross salary of a Chinese player is to be capped at CNY3 million (USD458,500) a year, a plunge of 45 percent from CNY5.54 million last year, it said. And the maximum they can earn is CNY5 million, it added.

Foreign players, meanwhile, will see their average gross salary shrink 60 percent to EUR3 million (USD3.6 million) per season from CNY58.5 million (USD9 million). And only a maximum of EUR10 million can be paid to foreign talent each year. Last year, nearly 70 percent of wages went to overseas players.

Despite the men’s teams ranking just 75th in the world this year, according to FIFA rankings, Chinese football clubs had the sixth highest salary payouts in 2018 at CNY8.5 million (USD1.3 million), it said.

In 2018, player remuneration accounted for 68 percent of the CSL’s operating costs, more than that of the UK’s Premier League, the most successful professional football league in the world, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

From now on, CSL clubs will not spend more than CNY600 million (USD91.7 million) on salaries in a year, it said. This is half what they spent in 2019.

Should a club’s total expenditure exceed these standards, the CFA will deduct 24 league points. If it gives players higher stipends, then its league results will be cancelled and the club will be demoted, it added.

Salary levels for 2020 have not yet been announced.

Editor: Kim Taylor