Barcelona deny reaching Xavi agreement with Al Sadd

Barcelona have not yet reached an agreement with Al Sadd to free Xavi from his contract, despite the Qatari club announcing on Friday that the Blaugrana had activated his release clause.

Barça's pursuit of Xavi has been an eventful one, with the club hoping he would become their new head coach way before Ronald Koeman was even sacked.

Al-Sadd confirmed that despite Barcelona's reluctance to trigger Xavi's release clause themselves, an agreement had in fact been reached and the 41-year-old would return to Camp Nou.

Al-Sadd's statement early on Friday read: "The administration agreed on the transfer of Xavi to Barcelona after paying the penalty clause stipulated in the contract. We agreed with Barcelona on practical cooperation in the future, Xavi is an important part of the history and we wish him all success in the next stage."

However, RAC1 report that Barça have denied this claim and that they have not made a public announcement because they don't agree with Al-Sadd's version of events. There is still no agreement in place to trigger Xavi's release clause, which is believed to sit at around €5m.

Since then, there have been plenty of rumours suggesting that Xavi has agreed to pay the entire €5m out of his own pocket, but according to Mundo Deportivo, the release clause will actually be split between Xavi and Barcelona.

Both parties will contribute €2.5m, with some of Xavi's share coming in the form of future ambassadorial work with the Qatari side.

Xavi has agreed personal terms with Barcelona and is waiting to return to Catalonia, with the release clause the last issue to be ironed out, and it seems as though things are slowly moving in the right direction.

As it stands, interim boss Sergi Barjuan will lead the team for their trip to Celta Vigo in La Liga on Saturday.