"Mes Que Un Club" it says across the seats at Barcelona's magnificent Camp Nou stadium. For a long time, the Catalans' claim to being 'more than a club' had a certain amount of justification. If it was true, then Xavi Hernandez could just as easily have been labelled "Mes Que Un Jugador."
The metronomic midfielder has been more than just a player for the greatest version of Barcelona ever to take to the field. While Lionel Messi may be the poster boy for a team which is close to securing a fourth Champions League title in nine years, it is the club captain who has been the true face of the blaugrana.
Xavi has spent 24 years of his life on Barcelona's books having first arrived at La Masia as an 11-year-old, and he has provided the heartbeat for everything that has been achieved over the past decade. There are few superlatives that haven't been used to describe his effect on the club, and every single positive review has been entirely justified.
But now, after Barcelona's image has been muddied by a string of questionable actions, Xavi has scored a major own goal of his own. The club has been subjected to a transfer ban for illegally signing youngsters from across the world, faces a court battle over tens of millions of missing euros related to the signing of Neymar, and courted controversy by breaking its holier-than-thou anti-sponsorship stance to promote the state of Qatar on its shirts.
It is with regards to the Arabic nation that the midfielder has scrubbed away the sheen of infallibility around himself. On Thursday, he announced that he will spend the next three years playing for Qatari side Al Sadd, working with the country's Aspire Academy, and acting as an ambassador for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
This is the same hugely-controversial World Cup which has already led to the deaths of countless migrant workers in the appalling conditions laid before them during the construction of stadiums. The same World Cup which, per extensive evidence presented by a Sunday Times investigation, was won by Qatar on the back of numerous back-handers to FIFA Executive Committee members from Qatari nationals. The same Qatar in which a news crew was recently followed and jailed for two days for having the temerity to investigate the living standards of construction workers.
Johan Cruyff, Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Diego Maradona
THE UNTOUCHABLES
It's never easy to pick the best eleven players from decades of history, yet tough decisions have to be made. Here are our best ever XI.
FIFA has responded to Qatar's obvious unsuitability as a host nation by digging in its heels. It has moved the tournament to the winter. It has insisted there is no hope of a re-vote. It has ignored much of a detailed anti-corruption report in favor of a points-scoring summary targeting the governing body's biggest critics while gliding over all concerns relating to Qatar. It has done everything short of sticking its middle finger up to the entire football world.
What is needed for a sane and balanced argument regarding the 2022 tournament and lasting change in the region is for world football's biggest names to demand recourse. It needs the greatest personalities – the star players whose every word is digested, repeated and analyzed by football fanatics across the globe – to stand up for those who fear for the plight of migrant workers, to demand detailed inquiries into the apparent corruption.
Instead we have Xavi, who has looked at the extensive evidence of Qatar's and FIFA's ills in one hand and a contract worth 30 million euros in the other, and chosen personal gain over moral obligation. The Spaniard has shown a scandalous lack of principals by jumping into bed with those at the heart of one of the greatest issues ever to grace football.
The next time FIFA or the local organizing committee in Qatar is questioned regarding one of the many problems related to 2022, they can send out their glamorous ambassador. They will call on a man with 133 caps for his country and 26 winners' medals of various shapes and sizes to attempt to woo the hecklers. Wheeling out one of the greatest players in recent history will be a lot more convincing to the floating voters and those in denial than just another rebuttal from Sepp Blatter.
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"Mes Que Un Club" it says across the seats at Barcelona's magnificent Camp Nou stadium. For a long time, the Catalans' claim to being 'more than a club' had a certain amount of justification. If it was true, then Xavi Hernandez could just as easily have been labelled "Mes Que Un Jugador."
The metronomic midfielder has been more than just a player for the greatest version of Barcelona ever to take to the field. While Lionel Messi may be the poster boy for a team which is close to securing a fourth Champions League title in nine years, it is the club captain who has been the true face of the blaugrana.
Xavi has spent 24 years of his life on Barcelona's books having first arrived at La Masia as an 11-year-old, and he has provided the heartbeat for everything that has been achieved over the past decade. There are few superlatives that haven't been used to describe his effect on the club, and every single positive review has been entirely justified.
But now, after Barcelona's image has been muddied by a string of questionable actions, Xavi has scored a major own goal of his own. The club has been subjected to a transfer ban for illegally signing youngsters from across the world, faces a court battle over tens of millions of missing euros related to the signing of Neymar, and courted controversy by breaking its holier-than-thou anti-sponsorship stance to promote the state of Qatar on its shirts.
It is with regards to the Arabic nation that the midfielder has scrubbed away the sheen of infallibility around himself. On Thursday, he announced that he will spend the next three years playing for Qatari side Al Sadd, working with the country's Aspire Academy, and acting as an ambassador for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
This is the same hugely-controversial World Cup which has already led to the deaths of countless migrant workers in the appalling conditions laid before them during the construction of stadiums. The same World Cup which, per extensive evidence presented by a Sunday Times investigation, was won by Qatar on the back of numerous back-handers to FIFA Executive Committee members from Qatari nationals. The same Qatar in which a news crew was recently followed and jailed for two days for having the temerity to investigate the living standards of construction workers.
Johan Cruyff, Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Diego Maradona
THE UNTOUCHABLES
It's never easy to pick the best eleven players from decades of history, yet tough decisions have to be made. Here are our best ever XI.
FIFA has responded to Qatar's obvious unsuitability as a host nation by digging in its heels. It has moved the tournament to the winter. It has insisted there is no hope of a re-vote. It has ignored much of a detailed anti-corruption report in favor of a points-scoring summary targeting the governing body's biggest critics while gliding over all concerns relating to Qatar. It has done everything short of sticking its middle finger up to the entire football world.
What is needed for a sane and balanced argument regarding the 2022 tournament and lasting change in the region is for world football's biggest names to demand recourse. It needs the greatest personalities – the star players whose every word is digested, repeated and analyzed by football fanatics across the globe – to stand up for those who fear for the plight of migrant workers, to demand detailed inquiries into the apparent corruption.
Instead we have Xavi, who has looked at the extensive evidence of Qatar's and FIFA's ills in one hand and a contract worth 30 million euros in the other, and chosen personal gain over moral obligation. The Spaniard has shown a scandalous lack of principals by jumping into bed with those at the heart of one of the greatest issues ever to grace football.
The next time FIFA or the local organizing committee in Qatar is questioned regarding one of the many problems related to 2022, they can send out their glamorous ambassador. They will call on a man with 133 caps for his country and 26 winners' medals of various shapes and sizes to attempt to woo the hecklers. Wheeling out one of the greatest players in recent history will be a lot more convincing to the floating voters and those in denial than just another rebuttal from Sepp Blatter.
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