RIO DE JANEIRO -- The head of the women's game for FIFA says it would be a "pity" if the Women's Professional Soccer league in the United States failed to survive.
Tatjana Haenni, head of women's competitions for the governing body, said Tuesday that the league needed to be put on a solid financial footing. It was recently reduced from six teams to five. The league began in 2009 with seven teams.
Speaking in Rio de Janeiro at the trade show Soccerex, Haenni said the women's game relies heavily on the United States as it develops the first professional league for women but officials need to find a sustainable formula.
"The professional league in the United States is obviously a league the world looks at," Haenni said. "It was the first professional league for women's football and it plays in a huge country known as one of the strongest countries in women football. I think it's important that the league continues.
"It would really be a pity for women's football if, in the U.S., there is no professional league."
WPS averaged 3,518 in attendance this year, down from 3,601 in 2010 and 4,683 in 2009.
English national team player Eniola Aluko, who plays in the league for Sky Blue, suggested WPS should have taken a more conservative approach.
"It's sad, really," Aluko said. "It's difficult. We're sitting here saying women's football is the fastest growing sport, but at the same time the best league is struggling. I hope the WPS figures out a way of stabilizing itself."
Haenni suggested FIFA needs to focus more on the women's game, although she acknowledged there has been progress. She said most of FIFA's development programs targeted the game in general, but not women specifically.
Maddux leaves Cubs: Greg Maddux is leaving the Chicago Cubs to join the Texas Rangers, reuniting him with his brother Mike.
Maddux will become a special assistant to the general manager, the same role he held with the Cubs the last two seasons.
Broxton to Royals: Reliever Jonathan Broxton and the Kansas City Royals have agreed to a one-year contract that guarantees the right-hander $4 million. Broxton was limited to 14 games for the Dodgers last season because of elbow trouble. A two-time All-Star, the 27-year-old made $7 million last season as part of an $11 million, two-year deal.
Boxer banned for doping: Boxer Damon Allen has been suspended for six months by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
USADA says the 19-year-old lightweight from Philadelphia tested positive for a banned diuretic in July. Allen's suspension began on Sept. 1, but he loses all results from July 19 onward.
Allen is a student at Northern Michigan University and won a silver medal in the 2010 National Golden Gloves.
Boxer sentenced to prison: Featherweight boxer Matt Remillard was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday for fracturing a Connecticut man's skull with an aluminum baseball bat last year in what police say was a fight over a woman.
Remillard, 25, pleaded no contest to first-degree assault in September in exchange for the five-year term.
Remillard, a two-time under-19 national amateur champ from Manchester, Conn., was climbing toward the top of the featherweight rankings before losing to Mikey Garcia in March, dropping his record to 23-1. Remillard held the featherweight titles of the North American Boxing Federation and the North American Boxing Organization before losing to Garcia.
Madrid Bid: The Spanish Olympic Committee will slash the cost of its bid to host the 2020 Olympics by up to 40 percent compared with the last time it tried to land the games.
Spain's troubled economy is marked by a 21.5 percent unemployment rate. Committee head Alejandro Blanco said the country would get a vital boost if it can win the rights to the Summer Games on the third attempt.
"We need the games," Blanco told Spanish media. "This country, with its current political and economic situation, needs a project such as this. The games mean a lot to all countries but, for Spain, it means a lot more."
On Tuesday, the mayor's office founded the Madrid 2020 Society, which will manage a bid that is competing with Tokyo; Rome; Istanbul; Doha, Qatar; and Baku, Azerbaijan. Though the Spanish committee did not release figures, Blanco said the bid plans to cut 30 to 40 percent from the previous $50.4 million budget, leaving it between $30.2 million and $35.3 million.
This bid has taken a low profile with Spain desperate to meet deficit-reduction targets amid the continuing eurozone debt crisis.
