friends list - limit?

Hi I have searched for the answer but did not find a number. How many friends can you have on the list. I had a message from someone whom I am guessing fell in love with the game a year or so ago. I do not know them and they are not even near me on the map. They said they added me, I asked them to remove the friend request since there is a limit to the number of friends you can have. They seemed a bit upset with that request. But I do not want to be limited if they add me and I do not add them, am unsure of how the game looks at that issue.

I ask this because I had a supporters key that I wanted to send to Senior Frog, he was down as a friend and I had him too, but he was not on the list to send the key to, I went through and deleted a bunch of folks that I had added from 5 years ago who have not played in a while. (Happy pre birthday 10-22), not sure if he is on my list now or not, will find out when I have another key to share. 

 Thanks for a great game.   

Please can the number of friends allowed on the list be increased - considerably.  I keep on having to delete people to add new friends.  What this means is that I delete the old names with the longest time since they last played.  However, some of those I would really like to know if they return to the game.  Many people do return after a gap, even a big gap in time.