Carlos Tevez - about to earn a gob smacking amount of money in China. Photo / Photosport
The English Premier League is hardly short of cash. But football's phenomenal giant is coming up against an even bigger money monster - China.
And the China factor has just seen player wages reach a new level of staggering, with Argentinian Carlos Tevez about to earn more than $1m a week.
Staggering is the appropriate word in this case. The EPL is backed by a $9b domestic deal for 2016 to 2019, with the overseas rights sold for almost the same amount again. This money goes straight to the clubs.
And yet the EPL is under threat from China, whose lowly league is waving riches at players which is making even the likes of Chelsea tremble.
China's national team is ranked in the 80s and its Super League is rated well outside the world's top 10 leagues by pundits. But it punches well above its weight in purchasing players, although each club is restricted to five imports.
Most of the aggressive Chinese football revolution is put down to one man, President Xi Jinping, who is obsessed with football and wants China to qualify, host and win the World Cup. The game is now compulsory in the national schools curriculum, and the grand plan included an aim of luring 35 international stars to the Chinese league this year.
Many Chinese apparently believe their country can win more respect in the world if they are a football giant, and tycoons to lowly provincial officials are scrambling to impress the political leadership by supporting the game. The immediate beneficiaries are players, who can earn scarcely believable sums.
Former Manchester United and City forward Tevez will leave his boyhood club Boca Juniors to earn $1.1m per week to play for Shanghai Shenhua. Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimovic turned down a similar offer from China this year to stay at Manchester United, but as the Daily Mail intimated he will probably leave at some stage to cash in with a Chinese team. Others like his United team mate Wayne Rooney have received massive offers, and not everyone is turning the money down.
Chelsea are dismayed that the 25-year-old Brazilian Oscar is preparing to quit the table-topping EPL club - currently on a record-threatening 11 match winning run - for $700,00 a week at Shanghai SIPG in a deal valued at $107m.
As the Daily Mail opined, "Even in the rarefied world of football, these figures are off the scale."
Chelsea's Italian manager Antonio Conte has lamented losing a player like Carlos, who at a relatively young age is leaving one of the world's best leagues to play in what, quality wise, is a football backwater.
"The Chinese market is a danger for all," said Conte. "Not only for Chelsea, but all the teams in the world.
"...the passion is more important than money for me. The Premier League is a great opportunity for players and for coaches, to fight for the title against fantastic players and coaches. England is the best in the world if you have ambition to test yourself against the other teams. To play in this league is a great opportunity, an honour.
"I am sorry to see him (Oscar) leave because a really good player, and a really good man, is leaving the club. I must be honest about this. But also I understand his decision."
Conte admitted that managers were not immune to the temptations either - Luiz Felipe Scolari, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Manuel Pellegrini are among a host of foreign managers in the CSL.
"This market is an incredible market. It's a great opportunity for all: for the coaches, also, not only for the players, because they are offering a lot of money," Conte told the Guardian.
As a comparison to the Tevez deal, Barcelona's superstar Lionel Messi earns $600,000 per week, while Paul Pogba's contract at Manchester United - said to be the best in the EPL - is worth just over $500,000 a week.
According to various reports, China not only managed to outspend the EPL during this year's January/February transfer window, they spent more than the Italian, German, French and Spanish leagues combined. Liverpool, for instance, missed out on Brazilian star Alex Teixeira, who joined Jiangsu Suning instead in a $75m deal.
The fear is spreading. This week goal.com reported that "it's time for MLS to start taking it seriously as a threat to the American league's transfer plans.
"It was almost a year ago when Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber made it clear he wasn't too worried about the big-spending ways of the Chinese Super League.
"Well here we are, two transfer windows later, and the Chinese League's spending isn't slowing down. In fact, the recent acquisition of Brazilian star Oscar and reported bid for Carlos Tevez have pushed the Chinese League into even higher levels of spending."
Goal.com detailed how Atlanta United's bid for Paraguay's Oscar Romero had been trumped by Shanghai SIPG, who will apaprently pay the 24-year-old striker three times what the American club could afford.
Goal added: "The big question being asked around the world is can China really keep this going? There are already concerns being voiced in China about CSL's astronomical spending (a total that has surpassed a combined $1 billion in recent years) and whether a bubble is forming that could ultimately pop."
And Arsenal's long time manager Arsene Wenger apparently spoke for many in football when he said: "China looks to have the financial power to move a whole league of Europe to China. I don't know how deep the desire in China is, but if there's a very strong political desire, we should worry."
Carlos Tevez has agreed a deal to join Shanghai Shenhua next season
He will become the world's highest paid player on
(£615,000) a week
Chelsea midfielder Oscar is expected to join Shanghai for
a week (£400,000)
Ramires, Hulk and Graziano Pelle have all recently joined Chinese clubs
Wayne Rooney is being wooed by a deal worth
(£75m) over three years.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has a golden vision for football in his country
His plan is to turn China into a football superpower capable of hosting and winning the World Cup