Xavi won’t get paid if he doesn’t publicize; the Qatari government requires stars to inform before protesting.

On December 17th, The Athletic UK famous investigative journalists Adam Crafton and Joey D’Urso wrote an exclusive report. The title of the column was– Special report: Qatar, the World Cup and the war on truth
In the second part of the column, TA exclusively revealed the relationship between Qatar’s Supreme Council and well-known football figures.
It is increasingly common for Qatar to hire former football players, coaches and media figures as promotional ambassadors to improve public perception of a tournament in order to promote the World Cup.
The most famous example during the 2022 World Cup was the multimillion-pound deal endorsed by David Beckham for Qatar during the World Cup. TA asked the Supreme Council whether its deal with the ambassador included a contractual obligation to avoid public criticism of Qatar, which did not respond.
In the past, Guardiola, Zidane, Batistuta and de Boer were all on the list, as were Cameroon World Cup idol Roger Mila and former Australian international Tim Cahill.
However, the world is not always so simple.
For example, 2010 World Cup champion Xavi coached Qatar’s THAAD club in 2019-21, but he also agreed to promote the game with a contract of 1 million euros a year. However, when Harvey is thought to have not done enough publicity for Qatar in the media, in fact he is not satisfied with the full reward.
Qatar and Harvey declined to comment.
For his part, Cahill is the chief sports officer of Qatar’s Aspire Academy and Qatar’s “heritage ambassador”. During the World Cup, he was also the “head of delegation” of the Australian Football Association, which sparked a conflict.
Before the competition, Australia released a powerful video highlighting the treatment of migrant workers and Qatari laws criminalizing LGBT+ people. When an Australian reporter asked Cahill what he thought of the video, he did not answer and directly suspended the interview.
The Supreme Council wants to influence not just the people with whom they have contracts.
TA can reveal that representatives of the Supreme Council have repeatedly contacted the agents of well-known players, insisting on listening to Qatar’s views and letting them know before any players promise to protest publicly during Qatar.
The Supreme Council did not respond to requests for comment.