BLACKBURN Rovers were celebrating today after setting up a mouth-watering friendly against Spanish giants Barcelona.

Rovers will announce their return to the big time with a high-profile clash against the Catalan club at Ewood just six days before the Premiership season starts.

And Nou Camp officials have promised to send over a full-strength squad packed with top international stars like former World Footballer of the Year Rivaldo.

"This is a great way of signalling we are back in the big time," said chief executive John Williams.

"We hadn't planned to play a friendly at Ewood this pre-season unless we could attract some top opposition and when this opportunity came along it was simply too good to miss.

"They don't come any bigger than Barcelona and we couldn't have picked a better time to be playing them on the back of promotion.

"They've promised to bring all their players and we expect to see at least 45 minutes from all their top stars, subject to injuries, because that's what pre-season is all about.

"So it should be a great occasion for the club and I just hope the fans turn out in their numbers."

As we exclusively revealed two weeks ago, Rovers had been making moves to bring a top continental side to Ewood as part of their pre-season preparations.

So when Barca officials contacted Rovers about the possibility of a friendly, they jumped at the chance.

"Barcelona were looking for games, they contacted us about three weeks ago and we've taken it from there," said Williams. "We've been in talks for the last couple of weeks and the paperwork was due to come through today to finally confirm the fixture."

Barca may be struggling to qualify for next season's Champions League at present but they remain one of the biggest club's in the world.

Caretaker boss Carlos Rexach is currently in charge of a multi-million pound squad containing top foreign stars like Dutch trio Frank De Boer, Marc Overmars and Patrick Kluivert, as well as French import Emmanuel Petit.

But, without doubt, Brazilian star Rivaldo remains the star attraction and he's seen by many as the greatest player in the world. The two sides last met during a friendly back in November, 1994, when Rovers triumphed 3-1 in front of a 20,000 sell-out crowd in Almeria thanks to two goals from Alan Shearer.

But the two clubs also have other links, with Barca having once agreed to loan striker Steve Archibald to Rovers back in December 1987.

No ticket details are yet available for the 're-match' -- which is due to take place on Sunday, August 12 -- but demand is sure to be high for a game which is certain to capture the imagination of the fans.