【经济学人】面对新规则，国足也是一脸的绝望|2017.03.16|总第848期

MUCH grumbling accompanied the start on March 4th of this year’s season of the Chinese Super League (CSL), the uppermost tier of professional football in China. Managers of its 16 clubs have been gnashing their teeth at a change of rules which was suddenly announced just a few weeks before the first matches. Teams are now allowed to field a maximum of three foreigners.

3月4日，新赛季的中超联赛——中国最高级别的足球联赛打响了，随之而来的是无尽的抱怨声。16支俱乐部的经理都因开赛前几周突然宣布的新政策而咬牙切齿。每只球队每场比赛现在最多上场3名外援。

The clubs would have preferred more notice. Many of them have only just acquired even more foreign players. All now have at least four, the previous maximum per side in any CSL game. (One of them, a Brazilian called Oscar, is pictured in a CSL match—he was transferred to Shanghai SIPG from Chelsea, an English club, for £60m, or about $75m, in December.) Last year China spent more than $450m on footballers, the fifth-largest such outlay by any country.

俱乐部本期望之前有更多的提醒，因为很多俱乐部都刚刚签下了更多外援。现在他们至少有4个外援——中超联赛以前允许每队拥有的最大外援数。（其中一位加盟中超的是巴西球星奥斯卡，11月的时候以六千万欧元（七千五百万美元）从英超俱乐部切尔西转会上海上港。）去年中国花了超过四亿五千万美元购买外援，在所有国家的转会支出中排第五。

But all this money has not improved the dismal state of Chinese football. The men’s national team ranks 82nd in the world. In October an embarrassing 1-0 defeat to war-torn Syria triggered protests by hundreds of fans in the city of Xi’an where the match was played. Local media say the Chinese Football Association announced its new rules on orders “from above”. They impose a levy on big transfers and demand that one-sixth of clubs’ spending must be on youth training.（读者试译）

但是这些钱并没有提高中国那令人担忧的足球水平，男足世界排名第82。10月份，甚至丢人地以1-0输给遭受战乱困扰的叙利亚，这引发了比赛举办地西安成千上万球迷的抗议。当地媒体评论说中国足协是“自上而下”地颁布新规。 （期待您的翻译，明天将会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~）