Helping the NFL is Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The new football partners have put up $40 million to fund the revamped league for the first four years.
The new World League features the same three teams from the 1991 and 1992 seasons -- London, Barcelona and Frankfurt -- plus three new teams, Dusseldorf, Amsterdam and Edinburgh.
This time there are no North American franchises. Their apathy, small crowds and poor television viewership led to the league's demise in late 1992.
"The last World League was geared to the U.S., not Europe where it was more successful," NFL president Neil Austrian said Wednesday.
In 10 years, Austrian envisions a truly World League, with 10 teams in Europe and 10 in Asia, the winner of each conference playing off somewhere, "maybe Hawaii," for an authentic World Bowl.
Having just secured NFL broadcast rights from CBS, which held them for 38 years, News Corporation's Fox Network will broadcast the World League throughout Europe on Murdoch's vast media network.
Of the $40 million, not much will be going to the players. Quarterbacks will receive $20,000 a season, kickers $10,000 and other players $15,000. The revived league kicks off April 8, 1995, with the World Bowl to be played June 17-18.
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Washington Redskins linebacker Kurt Gouveia has taken plenty of hits over the years, but one of the toughest to deal with was the hit to the ego of having to accept a pay cut.
Gouveia, an eight-year NFL veteran, led the team in tackles the last two years. However, he has been injured frequently and plans call for him to share time at middle linebacker. Gouveia's $1.02 million salary made him an expensive addition under the salary cap. He was released in late June but re-signed July 5 for $500,000.
"I thought about not playing at all, hanging it up, retiring," Gouveia said.
The new financial reality is the result of a deal agreed to last year between owners and players that gave the players limited free agency, that is the freedom to sign with another club when the contract with their current one expires.
Each club has $34.6 million to spend per year to sign up to 53 players, 45 of which are eligible to play in a game. Rookies, or first-year players, are eligible for about $2 million of the $34.6 million.
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