The verbal proposal was accepted at first by the egarenc, who does not weigh the doubts that the president of Barça has had with him and his professional background in recent months. Aware that he has no better options in the short term, and pressured by most of his leaders, Laporta has ended up rebuilding his bond with the former player to make him the mainstay of the sports project of his term. In fact, he was in a hurry to stage the relay. Only to stop Koeman, for a while he thought that Xavi could arrive in time to sit on the bench in the decisive duel in the Champions League with Dynamo Kiev. Quickly, however, he abandoned the idea because the Vallès man told him that the owners of Al-Sadd did not want him to leave before this Wednesday’s match against Al-Duhail, very important for the aspirations of the team chaired by the young man – only 33 years old – Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad, the younger brother of the Emir of Qatar.
With the agreement reached with Xavi and his staff, and once it has been accepted that Al-Sadd wants to hold the coach until the commitment that the league can decide, it remains to formalize the termination of the contract, which expires in June 2023. Although the egarenc maintains a very good personal relationship with the sheikh, who has always understood Xavi’s strong link with Barça, in Qatar they demand the visit of a Barça delegation to break an agreement that was signed in the middle of last May, after Laporta ruled out the via Xavi to replace Koeman at the end of the 20/21 season. In this sense, as he has advanced Sports world and has been able to confirm the ARA, it is planned that Mateu Alemany and Rafa Yuste will travel to Doha to finish the paperwork and, even more importantly, to stage with the Arab property the hiring of the coach. Laporta could join an expedition that is not yet known if it will leave Barcelona or take advantage of the passage through Ukraine to cut down flight hours. This move was about to take place last Thursday, but finally stopped when Al-Sadd made it clear that he would retain Xavi until after Al-Duhail.
171 million in sponsorships
Whoever it is, this gesture – more formal than economic – would mean a rapprochement between Barça and Qatar three years after the Catalan institution and the rich emirate stopped collaborating in terms of sponsorship. Between 2010 and 2016, the link between the two sides brought in 171 million in Barça’s coffers, first with the Qatar Foundation on the first team shirt and then with Qatar Airways. Urged by the opposition, former president Bartomeu found in Rakuten a less politically harmful alternative to the club’s most prized advertising space and the Qataris ended up failing to deposit money into the Barça cause in 2017, after Neymar fled to PSG – owned by the country’s emir. Laporta, who has more ties to Israel than to the Arab powers, is now forced to go through the tube to meet the urgency of recruiting Xavi in mid-season.
