FC Barcelona presents the first official interview with Jose Manuel Pinto.


Since joining the Catalan giants on a six-month, convertible loan deal, Jose manuel Pinto has been on the spotlight as the experienced keeper ahs been regarded as an effective back up - and sometimes alternative - for first choice keeper Victor Valdes, who has been in spectacular form this season. The Celta Vigo safe hands is confident that he will make a great impact in Barca both on and off the pitch, while insisting that the Blaugrana have all it takes to rise to the pinnacle of world soccer. The new goal keeper has spoken once to Barca TV since his arrival, but now presents an official interview in which the custodian shares his views in a lengthy discussion. Read the full interview and watch the Spanish
version on Barca TV:


Official Interview With Jose Manuel Pinto of FC Barcelona.

Efforts by FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta for club compensation is finally bearing fruit.


Uefa president Michel Platini has announced that clubs will benefit from a package being put together, which will allow compensation to be paid out to clubs whose players honour internal matches. The clubs are often denied of the chance to use their star players, who such clubs paid handsome figures to acquire and who often come back injured and dumped on the club for treatment by their respective national associations. The total outlay of 174 million Euros will be disbursed over the next four years.


FIFA President, Sepp Blatter coming out to openly suggest that the timing of the African Nations Cup be changed from January-February to July-August, when most clubs worldwide especially in Europe will be on break and when other similar competitions like the European Championship and Copa America are played.

Fans in Europe show how much they love FC Barcelona star Eric Abidal.



Éric Abidal has been named in the uefa.com users' Team of the Year 2007. The website revealed the 11 best players over the past 12 months. The event, which started in 2001, has remained the same with the website nominating 60 players and users then vote for their favourite eleven. The vote was cast by uefa.com readers, who were given a choice of several players in each position, and the Barça full-back won his place after 3.5million votes were made by 277,985 users. Abidal was the only Barca player picked by the voters.


UEFA Champions League winners, AC Milan, led the way with three players as Kaká, Alessandro Nesta and Clarence Seedorf were included. Liverpool saw Steven Gerrard named, while Chelsea have John Terry and Didier Drogba included. The other players in the team are Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Dani Alves (Sevilla), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter), while Sir Alex Ferguson was voted in as manager.

A happy club president gives his players praise accolades and urges the fans to show more support.



President of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta was not in any mood to hide or tone down his feelings after the Blaugrana shoved aside mighty Sevilla to gain the quarter final ticket for the Copa del Rey. Laporta spoke with satisfaction and looked ahead to the futre in both the King's Cup, the La Liga and the Champions League, as he said Barca will take each match as it came. Laporta said:

We must congratulate the team. The players made a titantic effort. It was a match of power against power, and our team prevailed. It was all very exciting, but over 180 minutes we showed effort and fight. Sevilla are a great team, and it was a match of two global giants. We shall continue to take each match step by step. This applies to the La Liga as well. An important factor is the support of the fans. The players need the support to keep their spirits up.

Celtic's CEO makes an unexpected reaction to the news of being paired with the feared Catalan giants in the champions league next stage.


Celtic's Peter lewwell was all bright and aglow with satisfaction after the champions league draws were concluded. Speaking to the press, the confident Scotts team official announced that Celtic had secured a good pairing, one that he described as absolutley fantastic! Peter shrieked:

It's an absolutely fantastic tie for us. It's a formidable task clearly. Our record against Barcelona is good and we hope we can get through. These are formidable games for Celtic and it's a huge task, but we go into the game with hope. We wouldn't be here unless we thought we could go through. We will be doing our damnedest. Gordon Strachan has done a fantastic job to get us in the last 16 for two years running, and we would be delighted for him, the coaching staff and the players to get through to the quarters.

The CEO is looking forward to another visit by the Catalan giants after previous meetings in the past three years. The Celtic official speaks:

We have a great connection with the Barcelona people and we are looking forward to welcoming them back to Celtic Park. It's another great tie in store.

Lawwell accepts, then quickly discards the underdog tag which Celtic has been bestowed with since the announcemnet of the pairing:

Any team that we would have got in this draw we would have been the underdogs, but we relish being the underdogs. We are looking forward to a fantastic night and we hope to give a great account of ourselves.

Only time will tell how well Celtic can hold out against a new look FC Barcelona squad which is glaringly different from the ones the Hoops have played in the past.