Guardiola gives team day of rest

Catalan paper Sport has reported that F.C. Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola would have given his entire team a day of rest following their two pre-season Wembley Cup matches. The players would not have any training obligations on Monday in order to regain strength.

According to Sport, the team will conduct a light training session tomorrow at 9:30 AM before departing to the United States for their American tour. Barcelona's first match of their American tour will be against the Los Angeles Galaxy in Pasadena, California on Saturday, August 1st.

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Barcelona has arrived in England

FC Barcelona's official website reports that the team arrived in London at 5:35 PM, on July 21st. They were led by team vice-president Rafael Yuste on a specially chartered flight. 52 other members of the club joined Yuste on the trip, totaling 28 players and 25 staff.

The team held an early training session this morning at the Sports Centre before heading to the airport. The flight left Barcelona at 4:50 pm and landed at Luton airport just under two hours later. Upon landing in London they headed to the Danesfield House Hotel & Spa, where they will make their stay for the duration of the trip.

The team will conduct two training sessions, one in the morning followed by one in the afternoon, during each of the following two days. FC Barcelona will match up against Tottenham Hotspur on Friday in their first friendly of the season. On Sunday they are scheduled to play Al-Ahly from Egypt.

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Treble will travel to England and United States

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Barcelona will take with them the trophies that were won last year when they will travel abroad during the pre-season.

The trophies of the Liga, the Copa and the Champions League will be shown to the public in England and the United States.

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Extra tickets for Tottenham friendly

The Wembley Cup organisers, IMG, have announced that due to huge demand, an additional allocation of over 5 000 tickets have been released for the Tottenham-Barcelona game on Friday 24 July.

The Wembley Cup will take place on Friday 24 and Sunday 26 July 2009 at the Wembley stadium in London and will see four teams compete for the trophy: Tottenham Hotspur, Celtic Glasgow, Al-Ahly and FC Barcelona.

On Friday 24, Barcelona will face English Premier League club Tottenham (kick-off: 8 pm local time) and two days later the team will play against Egyptian club Al-Ahly, the winners of last season's African Champions League (kick-off: 1:15 pm local time).

Each team will play two matches, with three points awarded for a win, one point for a draw and one point for any goals scored, encouraging attacking football. If the scores are still even, the winner will be decided on the most goals scored, then the least goals conceded and then fastest goal.

for ticket information you can click here

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Where will Barcelona stay during training camp?

Where will Barcelona stay during training camp?

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Barcelona will be staying at the Danesfield House hotel during their training camp in Engeland.

The hotel is located at 70 kilometres west of London, in the city of Marlow.

In late July (21-26), Barcelona will spend six days in England to train and take part in the Wembley Cup pre-season tournament (read more here).

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Where will Barcelona reside during England stay?

British tabloid The Daily Telegraph reports that Barcelona will be based at Bisham Abbey, one of the UK's five national sports centres, during the club's pre-season training camp in England.

In late July (21-26), Barcelona will spend six days at the training venue while also taking part in a pre-season tournament(read more here).

The decision this year to travel to the Thames-side training base near Marlow in Buckinghamshire comes after sports marketing agency IMG secured their involvement in the Wembley Cup, which will also feature Tottenham Hotspurs (England), Celtic Glasgow (Scotland) and Al-Ahly (Egypt).

IMG is promoting the friendly tournament as well as handling all Barcelona's media and public relations commitments while they are in the UK. Barcelona is expected to attract significant media attention both in Buckinghamshire and at Wembley, where they will play Tottenham and Egyptian champions Al-Ahly (read more here).

Shiva Misra of IMG is quoted by the tabloid as saying that he is confident that the Wembley tournament, the first of its kind at the new national stadium, will be a success: "The timing of the event should be good, with Barcelona coming as European champions and Tottenham providing a London presence and perhaps some new signings. Celtic will bring a significant support south for the first game featuring a Scottish club and Al Ahly are one of the biggest clubs in Africa. We are confident that it will be a great event."

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Barcelona will take part in Wembley Cup

Barcelona will this summer take part in the first Wembley Cup, a two-day pre-season friendly football tournament (read more here).

The Wembley Cup will take place on Friday 24 and Sunday 26 July 2009 at the Wembley stadium in London and will see four teams compete for the trophy: Tottenham Hotspur, Celtic Glasgow, Al-Ahly and FC Barcelona.

On Friday 24, Barcelona will face English Premier League club Tottenham (kick-off: 8 pm local time) and two days later the team will play against Egyptian club Al-Ahly, the winners of last season's African Champions League (kick-off: 1:15 pm local time).

Each team will play two matches, with three points awarded for a win, one point for a draw and one point for any goals scored, encouraging attacking football. If the scores are still even, the winner will be decided on the most goals scored, then the least goals conceded and then fastest goal.

You can find more info on The Wembley Cup here


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Pre-season will start in London

Barcelona first vice-president Alfons Godall has announced after a board meeting that Barcelona will start the next pre-season with a trip to London (read more here).

The squad will arrive on Tuesday 21 July and stay until Sunday 26 July and will play two friendly games at the new Wembley stadium: against English Premier League club Tottenham on Friday 24 July and against Egyptian club Al-Ahly on Sunday 26 July. Spanish news agency EFE claims that Barcelona already signed an agreement with sports marketing agency IMG, who will organize the two pre-season games.

Scottish tabloid The Scottish Sun claimed yesterday that Barcelona would take part in the so-called Wembley Cup on 26 and 27 July, with Celtic Glasgow chief executive Peter Lawwell confirming to the tabloid that his team would also participate: "The Wembley Cup is the first of its type at the new stadium, so we're delighted to be the first Scottish club to play there. It's a magnificent platform for Celtic to go and for our fans to go and support the team. So we're delighted about that."

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Barcelona to start pre-season in London

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Barcelona will start the 2009-2010 pre-season with a training camp in the surroundings of London, after the players had three days of physical tests in Barcelona from 20 June on.

As for the rest of the pre-season, Barcelona would have serious doubts on a new tour in the United States (read more here). Although nothing has yet been decided, it looks like the team could this year go on tour in Japan since the club has received some interesting offers to play friendly games in the Asian country.

Barcelona has also cancelled the post-season plan to play games in Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, mainly because there are too little players available because of World Cup qualifying games, the Confederations cup and the European championship under-21. There's a chance that some of these games could be included in the pre-season schedule.

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