Al Sadd are upping their price in talks with Barcelona to release Xavi from his contract.

Marca says Xavi has led all conversations with Al Sadd's owner, who only wanted to discuss the matter with the Spaniard himself, and the compensation fee is rumoured to be around five million euros.

A new meeting is scheduled for Friday in which a definitive agreement will be sought by the Catalan giants, although it's clear there will be no agreement before that time.

The former Barcelona midfielder has been keeping club employees, Rafa Yuste and Mateu Alemany abridged of the situation in Qatar, with the pair having travelled to Doha as Barcelona's intermediaries.

Failing to find an agreement on Thursday has a further knock-on impact on Barcelona's season, with it now exceedingly likely that Xavi isn't in place before Saturday.