• Number who can appear at any given time will be reduced from four to three • High spending on players such as Carlos Tevez has drawn global attention

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

China’s football association has announced a series of measures in response to “irrational” spending by clubs on transfer fees and player salaries, amid concerns that foreign stars are crowding out local talent and harming the country’s goal of becoming a global force in world football.

The changes include confirmation that the number of foreign club players who can appear at any given time will be reduced from four to three and that each team’s starting list must include at least two Chinese players under the age of 23.

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The Chinese Football Association said in a statement on Monday that the steps would target the “operations and management” of teams in the top-tier China Super League and the China Premier League one step below it.

The new measures will address “recent irrational investments by clubs, high-figure transfer fees and salaries paid to domestic and international athletes and other issues,” the CFA said in a news release. The Chelsea striker Diego Costa is the latest potential big-name signing to have been linked with a move to China.

High spending by Chinese clubs on players such as Argentina’s Carlos Tevez has drawn global attention, raising fears among some that foreign stars are depriving local players of opportunities to grow. That could stifle the government’s attempts to produce talent capable of achieving its stated goal of winning the World Cup by 2050, part of the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s push to make football success a national priority.

Even in that endeavour, China is relying heavily on foreign talent, having hired the veteran Italian coach Marcello Lippi to helm the men’s national team.

Despite misgivings, Chinese clubs have continued to spend heavily over the past year to attract mainly South American stars. Apart from Tevez, whom Shanghai Shenhua said it paid an $11m transfer fee to the Argentinian club Boca Juniors to acquire, they include Oscar, purchased from Chelsea, Brazilians Hulk, Ramires, Alex Teixeira and Paulinho, the Colombian striker Jackson Martínez and the Argentinian forward Ezequiel Lavezzi.

Altogether, Chinese Super League clubs paid to $300m in the winter transfer window on big names.