The 2025-26 season has already begun, but it is not yet clear where Barcelona are going to play their home matches. Barca have not played at their Camp Nou ground since starting a €1.5billion (£1.3bn; $1.8bn) refurbishment project in June 2023, hosting games at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys across the city while works progress.
Club president Joan Laporta has repeatedly said that
returning to the 105,000-capacity remodelled stadium as soon as possible is
crucial to boosting their troubled finances.
The latest target for their return was their La Liga game
against Valencia, currently scheduled for September 14 (although the date may
be moved across that weekend). The plan was to reopen the Camp Nou at a reduced
capacity of about 27,000. That would also make the stadium available for the
league phase of the Champions League, which begins a few days later.
However, the project continues to hit delays over factors
within and beyond the club’s control, as The Athletic has
revealed.
When Barca partnered with Turkish builders Limak in January
2023, Laporta said they were the only bidding company that committed to the team
being able to return (at two-thirds of capacity) for Barca’s 125th anniversary
in November 2024, and completing the project in full before June 2026.
That projected timeline quickly began to look very ambitious
as all the original architects, engineers and consultants from Josep Maria
Bartomeu’s time left the project, including the original Japanese architects
Nikken Sekkei. Many of the new
executives and partners hired lacked experience with such complex projects.
Limak’s only previous sports stadium was the 25,000-seater Mersin Arena in
southern Turkey.
Hurdles have included problems obtaining required permits
from the city council, complaints from residents about noise and light
pollution, reports of workers’ rights not being respected by local authorities,
and suppliers going bankrupt. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine affected the cost
and availability of materials.
Barcelona played the entire 2023-24 season at the Estadi
Olimpic Lluis Companys on Montjuic, about 4km from the Camp Nou, a ground that
has around 40,000 fewer seats than the old Camp Nou.
In July 2024, Barca vice-president Elena Fort said the Camp
Nou would be “ready for play by the end of the year”. In September, two months
from the intended return date, Laporta said the club “didn’t want to set dates”
because “it might happen later or it might even happen earlier”. An October
club statement said the team was expected to return to the Camp Nou “in the
second half” of the 2024-2025 campaign. Fort told Catalan radio station RAC1 in
January 2025: “We will return before the end of this season.”
That also proved impossible, and Barca had to apply to the
local authorities to allow them to finish the 2024-25 campaign in the Lluis
Companys. Major embarrassment was narrowly avoided when a Rolling Stones
concert scheduled to be held at the stadium on the same weekend as May’s La
Liga Clasico against Real Madrid was cancelled by the old rockers.
At the start of the summer, Barca targeted their traditional
season-opening friendly match, the Joan Gamper Trophy on August 10, as their
first game back at the Camp Nou. However,
the club did not even get to the stage of formally applying to the city council
for the required permits. Italian side Como were instead received at the Estadi
Johan Cruyff at the club’s training ground, a 6,000-capacity facility used by
Barcelona’s women’s team and the men’s reserve side.
Some important progress has been made — Barca released a
video on August 13 showing progress in the internal public areas of the
stadium, the playing surface installed, and seating in place in the Gol Sud
(south goal) and Tribuna (down one side of the pitch) stands. However, the
images also showed how much work remains.
To gain official permission for fans to be allowed into the
stadium, a ‘certificado de final de obra’ (CFO, certificate of work completion)
must be signed by the club and its partners in the project. The local town hall
then reviews the document and decides whether to grant a ‘licencia de primera
ocupacion’ (LPO, first occupancy license) to allow a certain number of
supporters to attend.
La Liga allowed Barca to play their first three domestic
league matches away from home — last Saturday’s 3-0 win at Mallorca, Saturday’s
visit to Levante, and the game at Rayo Vallecano on August 31. Their first home
game is therefore currently scheduled against Valencia on September 14 (in La
Liga, match dates tend to be fully confirmed closer to the time).
Such flexibility on La Liga’s part is not uncommon — for
example, Real Madrid were allowed to play their first three games of 2023-24 on
the road when their renovated Bernabeu was being readied.
The Athletic has confirmed that inspectors from
La Liga’s stadium supervision committee visited the Camp Nou last Tuesday, but
no immediate conclusions were shared.
Although Barca have publicly and privately maintained all
summer that they would not return to Montjuic, the idea has not gone away.
Deputy mayor Batlle suggested to RAC1 on Thursday that this was the most
sensible option. “It’s prudent to begin
to think of alternatives,” he said. “Among other things, so there is no hurry.
Fortunately, the Estadi Olimpic is there as a substitute.”
A wrinkle in that plan is a concert by American rapper and
singer Post Malone at the venue on Friday, September 12, making it impossible
for Valencia to be hosted there a few days later.
Flick’s team could, in theory, play Valencia behind closed
doors at the Camp Nou if they get that type of a license from the town hall.
But the Estadi Johan Cruyff at their training ground does not meet La Liga’s
requirements for a top-flight stadium, so that is not an option.
Barca could also play at another ground that does have La
Liga standards (such as a VAR setup and broadcast positions). Renting their
city rival Espanyol’s 40,500-seater RCDE Stadium is difficult to imagine, with
Girona’s 14,600-capacity Montilivi the next closest geographically.
Barca figures, including Laporta, have always been clear
that the stadium financing would not affect the club’s capacity to sign or
register players. Repayments do not
begin until the new stadium is already generating increased revenues. La Liga’s
salary cap rules also make allowances for teams investing in stadium
infrastructure. But in 2023, the club
estimated that playing one season at Montjuic would cost them about €90m in
lost revenues. They have so far played two. A total sum of €180m would be a
conservative estimate given the at times disappointing attendances at their
temporary home.
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