Saturday, August 30 2008 -- If Raul thought that his old relationship with Spain's national team coach Vicente del Bosque from their days together at Real Madrid would enable him to secure a place in Spain's squad for the World Cup 2010 qualifiers, then he needs to revise his thoughts.

Because Vicente del Bosque has excluded Raul from the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Bosnia and Armenia. Raul missed Spain's freindly against Denmark and now he is not in the plans for the World Cup qualifiers either.

Speaking to the media, Vicente del Bosque explained his decisions:

"He is left out for sporting reasons. There is no other explanation to give other than that. We only take the best players based on their form and we do not consider other factors not related to football."