Good news have been hard to come by for Barcelona in their recent attempts to return home to the Camp Nou, still, the club remains confident they’ll be back for the first 2025–26 La Liga home match.
Barcelona received a boost as the City Council granted the club a modified license to re-open the stadium with a reduced capacity of close to 30,000 fans. Originally, Barcelona asked for a license to return to the Camp Nou with a reduced capacity of 60,000, but delays in construction made that plan unfeasible.
With the modified license, all construction efforts will be focused on ensuring the Gol Sud and the Tribuna—the first level of the main grandstand behind the benches and the south-end of the pitch—are fully ready to host fans for the start of 2025–26. The plan now is for the stadium to gradually re-open by zones.
Although the news are a welcomed boost, there’s still a race against the clock to make a return to the Camp Nou for Barcelona’s home season opener against Valencia on September 14 possible. All of the club’s first three La Liga games are on the road to buy more time.
Mundo Deportivo reports that construction on the aforementioned stands must be completed within the next two weeks to present the “Certificado Final de Obra” (a certificate that proves all necessary construction work is finished) to Barcelona’s City Council.
Once this happens, the City Council, La Liga and UEFA will be notified of Barcelona’s intent to host their 2025–26 home games at the Camp Nou and the necessary inspections of the stadium will follow.
Local news outlet Diario ARA reports that within the Barcelona City Council, there’s a strong believe that Barça have already played their final match at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys—their temporary home stadium for the past two seasons.
Barcelona are yet to make anything official, but it’s the club’s main desire that the Camp Nou will be ready to host on the second weekend of September.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Barcelona Receive Camp Nou Return Date‘Boost’ From City Council .