Xavi stopped from entering the U. S over ties with Iran

Barcelona manager, Xavi Hernandez has been restricted from entering the United States over his ties with Iran.

This comes as a result of America’s travel policy of placing individuals who have visited Iran more than once under a checklist.

According to the report, the Spaniard had traveled together with his squad to the airport on Saturday but was restricted from joining on board the flight to the United States.

Hence, Xavi was unable to fly with his Barcelona squad for the start to their preseason tour of America on Saturday on their 17 day tour.

The restriction comes due to a delay in the manager’s documentation.

The Barca coach had visited Iran 3 times within the last 5 years, a number of times to raise alarms for the American embassy.

Xavi Hernandez, in his defense is linked with Iran due to his ties with the Qatari club, Al Sadd as both player and coach prior to becoming Barcelona boss.

This meant before his travel arrangements could be processed, he needed to provide extra documentations to the American authorities to justify his visits to the Middle East on multiple occasions.

The documentations which were due to arrive for the manager on Friday, ended up having a delay with the manager waiting till Monday before he can travel to rejoin the squad.

Five Barcelona players though have been restricted from joining in the tour with the rest of the squad as the manager wants to force them out of the club in the coming weeks.

The players are Riqui Puig, Martin Braithwaite, Samuel Umtiti, Oscar Mingueza, Pedro Neto as the club seeks for buyers.

Frenkie de Jong on the other hand joined the squad for the tour despite interests from Manchester United and its agreement with Barcelona to sign him.