FC Barcelona News: 8 November 2011; Del Bosque Calls Up Eight, Rosell Wants Fewer Clubs in La Liga

FC Barcelona is expanding on social networks and is now on Google+. Start following here. We're one day away from Barca's opening game in this season's editions of the Copa del Rey. Who will play for Blaugrana is unknown as due to the international break five South American players will be unavailable, as well as the U-21 players called up for Spain will be missing. Thankfully, the Spanish football federation agreed to allow eight Spanish players called up by Del Busque to join preparations at a later date or Barça would be forced to forfeit the game.

Spain manager names 8 Barça players to national side | FC Barcelona
Valdés, Puyol, Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi, Cesc and Villa will join up with the rest of the Spain squad on Thursday for the two friendlies, which will allow Guardiola to play them in Wednesday's Spanish Cup game against Hospitalet and fulfil the Spanish Federation's rules to field at least seven first team squad members for Cup ties.

Keita and Abidal available for Spanish Cup tie against Hospitalet | FC Barcelona
Josep Guardiola can call on both Seydou Keita and Éric Abidal for Wednesday’s Cup game against Hospitalet. The two internationals will travel to their national team squads on Thursday following the game, as will the eight Spanish players who have been called up.

Barca president wants fewer clubs in La Liga - Yahoo! Eurosport
"My opinion is that our league has too many clubs," Rosell said during a debate at the International Football Arena conference. "We have 20 and we should go down to 18, then to 16. This will mean that all the clubs will be more competitive and we can reduce players' salaries".

Sandro Rosell insists Barcelona will never be sold - ESPN Soccernet
Rosell, the elected head of the Catalan club which has 180,000 members, wants to see more clubs adopt the model of member ownership that Barcelona employ, but instead fears more of the middle eastern and American money that has infiltrated the English Premier League will instead head to Spain in search of new opportunities.

Barcelona's Xavi 'surprised and disappointed' by AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic & unconcerned by Real Madrid's form - Goal.com
The Swede spent only one season at Barcelona before being moved on to AC Milan and stated that Guardiola was 'a coward' in his upcoming book. Xavi has now taken time to castigate his former colleague for the remarks, saying: "It disappointed me very much and I was surprised at the same time."

Xavi, satisfied with Barça's play | FC Barcelona
Following the draw in Bilbao, Xavi reckoned today that "if anybody deserved to win it - we did," whilst admitting, "Bilbao put in a great performance" Xavi also insisted that the squad weren’t worried about the dropped points, believing that if they play like they did on Sunday, the wins will come

Santos' Neymar: Barcelona are the best club in the world - Goal.com
Santos forward Neymar has heaped praise on Barcelona, branding the Champions League holders as the strongest club in the globe. The Copa Libertadores champions will have the chance to lock horns with Barca in December as the two sides will compete in the Fifa Club World Cup in Japan.

La Liga's Bosman list - Abidal, Kanoute, Marcos Senna & all the players available for free in Spain next summer - Goal.com
Real Madrid recently activated a clause in the contract of Portugal's Ricardo Carvalho to automatically renew the defender for a third season at the Santiago Bernabeu, meaning the capital club will be releasing no first-team footballers in the summer. But Jose Mourinho's side are the exception as the other 19 top-flight teams - including Barcelona - will be shipping out some of their stars at the end of 2011-12.

Real confirm Di Maria injury - Yahoo! Eurosport
Tests have confirmed that Real Madrid winger Angel Di Maria damaged a thigh muscle in Sunday's 7-1 win at home to Osasuna. The Argentina international set up the first three goals at the Bernabeu, taking his tally of assists in the league to nine for the season, before being carried off at the start of the second half.

Ronaldo: Playing with Ozil makes me better - ESPN Soccernet
Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo has said that playing with team-mate Mesut Ozil has improved his game and maintained that he can still get better.Ozil joined Madrid from Werder Bremen the following summer and has impressed, most recently in the 7-1 demolition of Osasuna in which Ronaldo netted another hat-trick.