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CHICAGO - The U.S. Soccer Federation will launch an eight-team women's league in the spring with the American, Canadian and Mexican national associations in part funding the participation of some of their own national team players.

The announcement was made via a conference call with reporters on Wednesday by U.S. federation President Sunil Gulati.

The league is the third attempt at a first-division women's league, the first of which was the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) that began in the wake of the American run to the title in the 1999 Women's World Cup and folded in 2003.

The Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league folded in early 2012.

The new U.S. league will be given a name "in the next several weeks" Gulati said. He announced that teams would be located in Boston, New Jersey, Western New York, Washington, Chicago, Kansas City, Seattle and Portland.

All but Kansas City, Seattle and Portland - where Major League Soccer teams exist - had teams in WPS. Gulati said 11 groups had expressed interest in running teams.

"The real story today from our perspective is we're starting a league in eight important markets in the U.S. with the participation of the governing bodies and trying to create an economic model that is sustainable," Gulati said.

"You're going to see a lot of top players. There's no doubt there will be top players coming from elsewhere."

The announcement comes less than a year after the folding of the last U.S. women's league and less than four months after the United States women won their second straight Olympic gold medal and the Canadian women claimed bronze.

Gulati said the U.S. federation will fund up to 24 players, while Canada will fund 16 and Mexico a minimum of 12.

"You're looking at a situation where each team could have seven players from those three national teams that are funded by the three federations," he said. "In additional to that, U.S. Soccer will absorb all of the costs of running the front office so there is not capital contributions needed to the normal functions of a normal front office of scheduling, promotions, websites. All of those things will be handled by U.S. Soccer."