“Winning the Club World Cup is like touching the sky”

Barcelona legend and two-time club world champion Xavi Hernandez said the new FIFA tournament format will be “a turning point” for football and compared winning it to “touching the sky”. “It gives you the feeling that you touch the sky to be Club World Cup champion,” said the 2009 and 2011 tournament champion, in statements provided by FIFA.

“You see different styles of games, you've played against teams from Oceania, South America and North America and, well, it's nice. I think this competition is going to be a turning point,” he said. The also former player and coach of Qatar's Al Sadd said the new format, in which 32 teams from all confederations compete, will be “an opportunity for the different clubs of the world” to measure themselves “at a very high level.”

Xavi recalled his experience in the Club World Cup finals - in its previous format - played with Barcelona, including the 2006 loss to Brazil's Internacional de Porto Alegre. “It's difficult. You don't get used to knowing these teams so well (...) I remember that it's a different kind of football, different, perhaps more physical, more contact-based,” he said.

After losing in the 2006 final, Xavi, who was also World Cup champion with Spain in 2010, won the Club World Cup with Barcelona in 2009 against Estudiantes de La Plata and in 2011 against Santos.