CHICAGO: The third attempt to make women’s professional soccer work in the United States will be called the National Women’s Soccer League and will launch in the spring of next year.

US Soccer will be the overseeing administrative organisation for the acronym-unfriendly NWSL which has launched its official pages on Facebook and Twitter [facebook.com/NWSLsoccer and @NWSL_soccer]. A league website will be launched shortly.

Two previous attempts to make women’s pro soccer have both ended in a quick-fire financial failure.

Sunil Gulati, president of U.S. Soccer, had already named Cheryl NAiley,  former national team general manager, as executive director for the league.

Bailey said: “We are working on finalizing a number of league items but we now have a name and a logo that we think the fans will identify with and enjoy. This is a league we have to build from the bottom up and we have a group of dedicated owners and talented support staff at U.S. Soccer to keep this process moving in a positive direction while slowly growing the brand.”

US Soccer will subsidize the salaries of up to 24 national team players while the Canadian Soccer Association and Federation of Mexican Football will each do the same for up to 16 of their own players.

The eight teams in the league are: Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Portland Thorns FC, Sky Blue FC, Washington Spirit, Western New York Flash and Seattle.

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