Cranes puncture the skyline of Barcelona for a vast project that is supposed to be completed in 2026. It’s where followers will pay homage, it will be one of the most impressive of its kind in the world when completed.
The cathedral of Sagrada Familia, under construction since 1882, was hoped to be completed in time for the 100th anniversary of the death of its architect, Antonio Gaudi, in 2026. There’s optimism that it will be.
Only three miles across town, yet more cranes tower above the Catalan capital for another, equally vast project that’s also supposed to be completed in 2026.
The new Camp Nou will be a cathedral to the millions of football fans who go to worship there each year.
Barcelona enjoyed the highest average home crowds in world football when fans last saw a game there in 2023, the year a comprehensive redevelopment started, which involved removing the huge top tier and then adding two new tiers and re-roofing.
Hundreds of workers have been on the project day and night but multiple deadlines have been missed, the latest to stage this Sunday’s La Liga game against Valencia.
The match should be Barcelona’s first home La Liga game of the season. Because the Spotify Camp Nou stadium is being rebuilt, the Catalans requested that their first three games were played away from home allowing more time for the stadium to be ready.
Barcelona had also hoped that the two years they spent playing at the city’s Olympic Stadium on the hill of Montjuic would be more than enough time.
The club initially said that Camp Nou would be partially open for use by December 2024. This was then put back to April 2025, May 2025 and then August 2025 for the pre-season Gamper curtain raiser against Como.
Camp Nou wasn’t ready by that point either and the game was played at the 6,000 capacity Johan Cruyff Stadium normally used by the club’s women’s and reserve teams.
Camp Nou will hold 105,000 when it’s finished. The plans look stunning, it’ll easily be the biggest stadium in Europe and the biggest in world football which a club will call their home.
The original stadium, which seated 98,600 and was last expanded for the 1982 World Cup finals, had grown tired and dated, with a lack of cover and lucrative executive facilities.
The 105,000 capacity and a full roof is expected to be reached next year and the intention was always to open it in stages as the reconstruction progressed. The first stage, with 27,000 seats, has still yet to get approval. The second will be for 47,000 seats, the third for 60,000.
“The club is working intensively to obtain the necessary administrative permits for the opening of the Spotify Camp Nou in the coming weeks,” said a club statement on Tuesday. “For this reason, the match will instead be played at the Estadi Johan Cruyff.”
Five days before the game, neither Barcelona nor Valencia fans knew whether they would be able to attend or not. The 6,000 capacity means that few of them will.
Barcelona have a lot of home games coming up. There is a league fixture against Getafe on September 21, Real Sociedad visit a week later and a huge Uefa Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain on October 1.
Uefa regulations stipulate that a team cannot move home stadium during the same phase of competition, meaning that if Barcelona begin the Champions League back at Montjuic since a deal exists to play there until February 2026, they have to finish it there – unless a special dispensation is given.
Maybe it would have been better to stay at Montjuic for a third season rather than suggest what now looks like a ridiculously early opening date of December 2024.
Frustrated fans, understandably, are sceptical that any new deadlines to move into the new venue will be met.
