Barcelona face stadium chaos after delays to £1.25bn project and could play next match with no fans

Barcelona’s stadium chaos is threatening to stretch into next year, with the club fearing having to stage games behind closed doors.

Barca, who haven’t featured at the iconic Camp Nou since 2023, play their first home game of the season against Valencia this Sunday.

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Hansi Flick has been eagerly awaiting his first opportunity to stand in the home dugout of Barca’s stadium since his arrival last year.

The Catalans have been desperately trying to redevelop the ground that was first built in 1957 to increase their capacity to 105,000.

Since the start of construction, Barca have been playing at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys – a 55,000 capacity stadium on Montjuic.

The temporary home, which hosted the summer Olympics in 1992, was only meant to be used until 2024 before continuing delays.

The £1.25billion project had hoped to be complete for the start of this campaign, but a ball has still not been kicked in Camp Nou yet.

The Spaniards had earmarked this Sunday against Valencia as the curtain-raiser, but a venue still hasn’t been confirmed.

Speaking on talkSPORT’s Trans Euro Express podcast, European football expert Andy Brassell admitted three different stadiums have been touted as a potential host, saying: “Yeah, it’s a possibility.

“The plan was always to be back next weekend, September 14th, though playing the home game against Valencia in the Camp Nou.

“Now it’s become clear that that is not yet possible. So they’ve got the sign-off to play in the previously known as Mini Estadi, because that’s what it is, now the Estadi Johan Cruyff.

“It holds 6,000, and Barcelona B play there. So they’ll be playing there without a crowd basically. That’s the plan for next weekend.”

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Barcelona could play Valencia at their B team stadium with zero fans

Flick’s side switched to the home of the women’s team and Barcelona B, the Estadi Johan Cruyff, for the Joan Gamper Trophy in August.

LaLiga regulations require a minimum of 8000 seats, but even with an exemption, the champions are struggling to allow any fans in.

“It doesn’t look like it at the moment because basically there’s too short a run for tickets,” Brassell explained on talkSPORT.

“Now this may change, of course, because things can always change with Barcelona.

“There’s too short of a run-up to A, ticketing, and B, deciding who can actually come in, because clearly there’s a load of season ticket holders who would miss out, even with the fact they’ve been playing in Montjuic for a while.”

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Where will Barcelona play their two home games this month?

Barcelona are due to host Getafe on Sunday, September 21, before entertaining Real Sociedad seven days later.

Should the Catalonians fail to stage either fixture at the redeveloped ground, then they run the risk of European implications as well.

UEFA require clubs to play all of their home knockout matches at the same stadium, which is an issue Barca first encountered last season.

The governing body also want the green light that the Camp Nou is ready before the Champions League opener with Paris Saint-Germain.

Brassell continued: “They’ve been playing all their games away to get Camp Nou ready as quickly as possible, and hopefully play all their games there.

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“Now look, the Real Sociedad game on the 28th is the important one because not only are they aiming to be back in the Camp Nou for the reception of PSG, the first home game of the Champions League which is Wednesday, October 1st, but basically UEFA not only want them to play all their league-phase games in the same stadium, so if they’re going to play in the Camp Nou before February, they need to be in for that game against PSG.

“But UEFA, it appears, would like them to have played a game and it to have been OK beforehand.

“So that means Real Sociedad on the 28th basically. That’s the one.

“If they can’t get back there for that, it looks like they’ll be going to Montjuic because they can’t play in the Mini Estadi indefinitely, of course.

“They need big crowds, they need gate receipts, all that sort of good stuff. So they’ve got an agreement, if they need to, to go back to Montjuic until February, and that would probably be the timescale.”

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No return to Camp Nou this month

Worryingly for Barcelona, the latest update from Cadena SER has claimed that returning to their old home in September is impossible.

As per the report, Marcus Rashford‘s loan side have until Tuesday to confirm where their clash against Valencia will take place.

The Blaugrana had hoped to move back into Camp Nou before it’s completely finished and play in front of a reduced crowd.

However, Brassell admitted that, despite his hopes, it is more likely that the Champions League knockouts will be where it returns.

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Barcelona running out of time

“That is the plan,” talkSPORT’s European football expert confirmed on Barca’s hopes of playing PSG in front of a smaller Camp Nou crowd.

“So there are three stages of the redevelopment, and they’re coming to the end, or they’ve come to the end, but they need it signed off safety-wise for stage one. So basically, they need to be in there with a reduced crowd.

“UEFA are hoping they can get it up to 45 [thousand] for Champions League matches because, of course, that’s another thing, without getting too much into the boring technicalities of it, there are so many extra elements for Champions League.

“It’s quite a production when you have Champions League at your stadium, and that’s why you have so many clubs, and you’ve had clubs across Europe that haven’t been able to have Champions League home games in recent years at their stadium.

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“Union St. Gilles will not be able to do it this year. Union Berlin, when they first got into European competition, had to play at the Olympiastadion, which was Hertha’s stadium, of course.

“It happens to a number of clubs because you need certain television provisions, you have four television units, big advertising boards, all that sort of stuff.

“So these are the extra things that Barcelona have to think of.

“Personally, I’m hopeful they’re into Camp Nou for Barcelona vs PSG on October 1st, because I think it would be brilliant.

“Realistically, I think they’re there for the knockouts.”