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FOOTBALL

Barcelona sack coach Xavi after trophyless season

Barcelona sacked coach Xavi Hernández on Friday after the Catalan giants failed to win a trophy this season but just weeks since he and club president Joan Laporta agreed he would stay in the post.

Published: 24 May 2024 14:30 CEST
Barcelona sack coach Xavi after trophyless season
FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta (L) and Barcelona's Spanish coach Xavi address a press conference at the Joan Gamper training ground in Sant Joan Despi, near Barcelona, on April 25, 2024. - Barcelona sacked coach Xavi Hernandez on May 24, 2024 after the Catalan giants failed to win a trophy this season, AFP reported. (Photo by LLUIS GENE / AFP)

Xavi will take charge of the team’s final La Liga match on Sunday at Sevilla before departing.

“Barcelona president Joan Laporta has told Xavi Hernandez he will not continue as coach for the 2024-25 season,” said Barcelona in a statement.

Former Bayern Munich and Germany coach Hansi Flick is heavily tipped to replace Xavi.

In January, Xavi said he would leave at the end of the season but, after a run of strong form, in April he and president Laporta agreed the coach would stay for the next campaign, with his contract expiring in June 2025.

However, the situation quickly changed with Spanish media reporting Laporta was angered by Xavi’s comments suggesting it was hard for the financially-hamstrung club to compete with Real Madrid and other elite European sides.

“Barcelona want to thank Xavi for his work as coach, which adds to his unmatchable career as a player and the captain of the first team, and wish him all the best in the future,” continued Barcelona’s statement.

“In the coming days, Barcelona will reveal the new coaching structure for the first team staff.”

Barcelona won La Liga last season but were not able to successfully defend the title in the current campaign.

They were knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals by Paris Saint-Germain, were hammered by Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup final and lost to Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey.

When Xavi, 44, made his U-turn to stay, it appeared he and Barcelona were remaining together in a marriage of convenience.

“It’s great news that Xavi is staying,” said Laporta on April 25.

“The team we have, that is (still) consolidating, with very young players, needs that stability.

“Xavi is a reference for young players and we can see that — today I’m especially pleased, and the board have unanimously supported this decision.”

Less than a month later Barcelona’s tempestuous president changed his mind.

Xavi insisted over the past fortnight he was still looking forward to coaching the club next season and felt he had the confidence of Laporta.

Barcelona’s chief appointed Xavi in November 2021 to replace Ronald Koeman, aiming to raise the club back to its pedestal after years of struggle in Europe following their 2015 Champions League triumph.

As a player Xavi made 767 appearances for the Catalan club, behind only Lionel Messi, winning eight La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues among other trophies.

For years Xavi insisted his dream was to coach Barcelona but in January he said the job was “cruel” and took a toll on him mentally.

Xavi’s likely replacement Flick, 59, has not coached since Germany sacked him in 2023 after a poor run of results.

Previously Flick steered Bayern to a treble in 2020, including an 8-2 thrashing of Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals.

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TOURISM

Barcelona to get rid of all tourist rental flats ‘by 2028’

The mayor of Barcelona announced on Friday that the city will bring an end to 10,000 tourist flats by 2028 simply by not renewing licences.

Published: 21 June 2024 14:47 CEST
Barcelona to get rid of all tourist rental flats 'by 2028'

Barcelona city council has pledged to ‘eliminate’ the more than 10,000 tourist flats in the Catalan capital.

Jaume Collboni, the city’s Socialist mayor, made the announcement during a press conference on Friday afternoon. 

The plan is to rid the city of all the tourist flats by November 2028 by not renewing any of the 10,101 licences in the city.

READ ALSO: ‘It kills the city’: Barcelona’s youth protest against mass tourism

They will instead be used for residential properties, applying a decree law approved by the Generalitat which regulates tourist housing.

“We’ve decided to go all out to convert them into residential housing,” Collboni said.

Collboni argued that the measure is a response to the growing difficulty of accessing affordable housing in Barcelona, where supply is scarce and rental prices have surpassed €1,100 per month on average.

According to figures cited during the press conference, the price of housing has increased by 68 percent in Barcelona in the last 10 years, while sales by just 38 percent. “The least that can be done is to think about how to provide more public and private housing. That means ‘more supply, more supply, more supply’,” Collboni said.

“The city has 10,000 tourist flats and we want to convert them into residential,” he added. “By November 2028, we want these 10,000 tourist flats to become residential. From 2029, the tourist flat as we know it today will disappear in Barcelona.”

Discontent among locals about the proliferation of short-term tourist rental flats has grown in the Catalan city in recent years. But it is not only in Barcelona. The sentiment has spread across the country in recent years, particularly in the post-pandemic period.

Protests have already been held in the Canary and Balearic Islands as well as Madrid and Barcelona, and demonstrations are planned in Málaga at the end of June.

READ ALSO: ‘It’s become unliveable’: Spain’s Málaga plans protests against mass tourism

A combination of dwindling rental market supply and rising prices, worsened by the rise in post-pandemic remote working, has meant that in many Spanish cities digital nomads and tourists dominate the city centres and price locals out of their own neighbourhoods.

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