Barcelona take revenge on legendary midfielder after election campaign | OneFootball

Barcelona will officially hand the reins back to Joan Laporta as the president of the club for his fourth mandate in charge, following his re-election in March. Beating out Victor Font by a comfortable margin, his Vice-President Rafa Yuste has been in charge of the club on an interim basis since Laporta called elections.

One of the main backers of Font during the elections was former manager Xavi Hernandez. Appointed by Laporta back in 2022, Xavi won a La Liga title in his second season, but things ended on sour terms in his third, when he resigned, was reappointed and then sacked in the space four months.

Xavi removed from Barcelona legends match

Former Barcelona icons can frequently be found playing Barca Legends matches, which features retired former stars competing against other historic teams. Frequently that will be Real Madrid, but often sides like Manchester United or Liverpool take part in similar events. For the first time ever, Barcelona’s iconic midfield trio of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets were set to reunite in a legends match in Miami and Seoul.

Yet Diario AS report that Xavi was vetoed from the two games, something which has infuriated Xavi. He has participated in several previous legends matches, but his agents received a call from Luis Sa, a former member of Deco’s agency and promoter of the events, informing him that he was no longer to play. Club sources have tried to play down the incident, and say it will be resolved in time.

Xavi’s feud with Laporta

During the election campaign, Xavi was perhaps Laporta’s fiercest critic, accusing him of sabotaging the return of Lionel Messi, and of being in thrall to advisor Alejandro Echevarria. Xavi blamed Echevarria for meddling in the dressing room during his final season, and commented that ‘Echevarria is more in charge than Laporta’, something that did not go down well with the current regime.