Chinese football expert Cameron Wilson (@CameronWEF) has his finger on the pulse of the Chinese Super League. 

Yesterday, he tweeted that a report that suggested China was considering returning to the Asian 3+1 quota rule.

“Report emanating from South Korea claims the Chinese Super League may return to a 3+1 foreign player policy, the +1 being a slot dedicated to foreigners from Asian countries,” he wrote.

If this is true, it may be bad news for A-League clubs hoping to hold onto their top Australian talent. Though good news for agents and players' bank accounts. 

Until the rule changed in early 2017, China became a lucrative and popular destination for Australians.

Many of the Australians were defenders who were admired for their work ethic and physical approach.

Each Chinese Super League team was allowed to sign four foreign players and one of those had to be from an AFC member nation - a so-called 3 + 1' rule.

Trent Sainsbury, Jimmy Holland, Matthew Spiranovic, Apo Giannou Ryan McGowan, Dario Vidosic, Michael Thwaite and Tim Cahill were just some of the Socceroos who found lucrative contracts in China pre-2017. Adrian Leijer, the one-time Victory favourite, was another.

Socceroo Massimo Luongo summed up the mood in 2017.

“Probably once a month there’s always someone trying to get me over there — an agent or someone that could probably profit from it as well but it doesn’t interest me,” he told beIN Sport at the time. 

Australians had always been popular in China, especially after the success of Joel Griffiths, who won the 2009 Chinese Super League with Beijing Guoan. 

After the rule changed, though, Australian players fell off the CSL radar.

But if this report proves to be true, it might not be good news for the newly independent A-League.

Chinese radars may focus on more strong defensive stocks and may pillage A-League squads for the best Australian talent.

With two new clubs coming into the league over the next two seasons, this may become a problem for not just the new clubs. 

But these Australians will know they can inflate their bank accounts with a season or two in the cashed-up, but haphazard football scene in the Middle Kingdom.

Right now, it's an unconfirmed report so it's a wait and see. 

In the ever-changing Chinese Super League, administrators have been fiddling around with rules around foreigners and U23s.

It’s resulted in sneaky coaches finding ways around the rules, including one U23 player being subbed off after just 55 seconds. Another after just two minutes. In other instances, some U23 keepers have been sent on as substitute strikers.

The new rule for under-23s is that one has to play the entire match, although they do not have to be replaced by another U23 if they are injured and there are no substitutes left or they are red-carded.

The AFC quota was originally dropped in 2017 to help more Chinese U23s play at the highest level and to help build a winning U23 team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (China play this January in the AFC U23 qualifiers under Guus Hiddink) and Asian Cup 2023, hosted in the Middle Kingdom.