“We’re returning home,” read a Barcelona statement on Monday afternoon.
After 909 days away, Barca will play again at the Camp Nou when they host Athletic Club in La Liga on Saturday.
The Catalans have not played at their iconic home ground since they started a €1.5billion (£1.3bn; $1.8bn) refurbishment project more than two years ago.
“Saturday’s game will be a historic moment,” club president Joan Laporta told RAC 1 radio station on Tuesday. “It’ll be wonderful to be back”.
Barca played all their home games across the city at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on Montjuic during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Progress at the Camp Nou was slower and much more complicated than the club and its fans expected.
Even now, as the stadium reopens with a limited capacity of 45,000 (under half of the 105,000 total it will have when finished), the saga is far from over.
The Athletic looks at what Saturday’s game means for Barcelona, the work still to be done and the questions yet to be answered.
How did we get to this point?
In 2007, English architect Norman Foster was hired by Laporta during his first presidency to redesign the Camp Nou, but plans never came to fruition.
In April 2014, Barca’s club-owning members (or socios in Spanish) approved an Espai Barca project proposed by then-president Josep Maria Bartomeu to modernise the Camp Nou, opened in 1957, and the area around the stadium. That was put on hold when the club started suffering significant financial problems, but a project was ready to go when Laporta returned to the presidency in early 2021.
Laporta and his new board decided to make major changes to Bartomeu’s plans, and socios approved the revised concept in December 2021. Turkish building firm Limak was hired in January 2023, and initial financing of €1.478billion was secured via Goldman Sachs that April, with work then starting on the project.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta initially said they would be back for the club’s 125th anniversary last year (Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In January 2023, Laporta said he expected the team to be back at the Camp Nou for the club’s 125th anniversary in November 2024. But that date soon looked extremely ambitious — and the return kept being pushed further and further back.
Last July, Barca announced they would host their traditional Joan Gamper Trophy pre-season friendly at the Camp Nou on August 10, but that was not possible. Then it was meant to be ready by mid-September, with La Liga giving Barca permission to play their first three games away from home. But the city council continued to insist that more work needed to be carried out before they would sanction the permits required for games to take place at the stadium.
So Hansi Flick’s team ended up playing their first two home games of the 2025-26 Liga season at the tiny 6,000-capacity Estadi Johan Cruyff at their training ground. Their next five home games across La Liga and the Champions League were then played back at Montjuic.
What are the new features of the Camp Nou?
Everyone at Barca had accepted for some time that the creaking concrete bowl that was the old Camp Nou needed to be replaced by a much more comfortable and modern stadium.
At the Camp Nou, just five per cent of its seats were classified as ‘VIP’ areas, so the stadium generated far less matchday revenue than other top European stadiums.
The new design includes a double ring of VIP boxes between the second and third tiers of the ground. This will generate more revenue over the long term — Barca have projected approximately €120million income annually — but has added to the complexity of the construction project.
Twenty-one thousand Barca fans (and media, including The Athletic) were given a sneak preview of the new-look stadium at a public training session for Flick’s team on November 7.
During their return on Saturday, Flick and his team (and their opponents Athletic) will prepare for the game in new changing rooms, while the players’ tunnel for accessing the Camp Nou pitch is also new.
A view of the Camp Nou on November 14 (Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images)
Why couldn’t Barca return sooner?
Laporta and his board decided to make significant changes to the Bartomeu plan for the stadium rebuild, then hired construction firm Limak as it promised a lower budget and shorter construction time, even though the company’s only previous sports stadium had been the 25,000-seater Mersin Arena in southern Turkey.
Hurdles over the last two and a half years have included all the original architects, engineers and consultants leaving the project, the rising cost and diminishing availability of materials, suppliers going bankrupt and complaints from residents about noise and light pollution.
Even in recent weeks, as the return has come closer, problems have continued to surface. In early November, the site workers’ union protested over employment conditions, including staff shifts lasting more than 12 hours a day. There was also a case of tuberculosis among the construction crew, building company Limak confirmed. It issued a statement saying that it was an isolated case, that the employee involved was already undergoing the necessary treatment and that all prevention protocols had been followed.
What are the conditions of playing there on Saturday?
Barca’s statement on Monday said the club had obtained an occupancy licence corresponding to Phase 1B of the project, which covers the lower tiers of the eastern ‘Lateral’ side of the stadium.
Barca had already obtained a licence for Phase 1A — the lower tiers of the western ‘Tribune’ (the side with the executive box and benches) and ‘South Goal’ sides — but had decided against moving back to the Camp Nou, since it was only allowed to host around 27,000 fans under this licence. The new permit authorises Barca to let in 45,401 fans.
Last September, Barcelona’s city council made public “safety” concerns over the rebuilt ground that were stopping them from issuing the required permits to allow fans in. These included issues in “access routes to the stadium”.
Barca’s club statement confirming the news on Monday said there have been “improvements in comfort and safety for the public: more entrances, more evacuation routes, and more handrails”.
A condition of the 1B licence is that visiting supporters cannot officially be accommodated at the stadium, as the required controls and conditions for segregating and protecting an away contingent are not yet in place. Saturday’s visitors, Athletic Club, informed their fans on Tuesday morning.
Who is going on Saturday and how much will it cost them?
Last month, Barca launched a ‘2025-26 season pass’ that guaranteed fans tickets for all home games at the Lluis Companys and Camp Nou.
About 21,000 Barca supporters bought these season tickets. Individual games are very affordable, costing between €20 to €52 depending on the seat location.
All other fans — including Barca socios who did not take up the season pass — must buy their tickets for each home game separately.
Around 16,000 ‘ordinary’ tickets for Saturday’s game against Athletic Club were put on sale on the club website, with prices starting at €199 and surpassing €500, immediately causing consternation among fans (even allowing for club members having a 20 per cent discount).
About 8,000 tickets for Saturday’s match are categorised as VIP — with prices per seat of €1,050 for the players’ zone next to the team bench, and a whopping €1,500 per seat for an ‘exclusive experience’ with access to the Presidential Box VIP lounge.
“As we increase the capacity, we’ll adjust the prices,” Laporta said in his RAC1 interview on Tuesday. “This is an exceptional moment. We looked at the situation and believe these are the prices we should put. Our season pass prices are the best in Europe.”
What about the Champions League?
UEFA regulations state that, from the league phase onwards, clubs must “in principle” play all their Champions League home matches at the same stadium. The wording allows for wiggle room in decision-making, and there is sympathy at UEFA for Barca’s particular circumstances.
Flick’s side played their first two home Champions League games, against Paris Saint-Germain and Olympiacos, at Montjuic. But the club are aiming to play their next league-phase game, against Eintracht Frankfurt on December 9, at the Camp Nou.
Barcelona’s Champions League defeat against Paris Saint-Germain took place at Montjuic (Joan Valls/Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Further discussions are due to take place between Barca and UEFA, whose regulations also stipulate that away supporters must receive five per cent of the tickets for each game.
“We’ll have UEFA’s decision soon,” Laporta told RAC1. “We hope it’s favourable. We’re setting everything that’s needed up to meet their criteria. In La Liga, we’ve been unable to make a separate area for the opposition fans, but it’s compulsory for UEFA. I’m optimistic.”
When will the Camp Nou be back to full capacity?
When Limak was hired in January 2023, the refurbished Camp Nou was slated to be finished in June 2026.
More recently, Barca figures have mentioned the summer of 2027 as a target, but given the third tier of the new stadium is still in an early phase of construction, nobody can confidently predict the exact date when the full 105,000 capacity will be ready.
The plan is to complete the stadium’s roof after the ground is back to full capacity, with that installation now expected to be completed in the summer of 2028 at the earliest.
The club’s next short-term objective is obtaining the ‘1C licence’ from the city council, which would allow supporters into the stand behind the north goal, and take the permitted capacity to 62,500. “Let’s see if we can get up to 62,000 by the end of this year,” Laporta told RAC 1 on Tuesday.
What does Saturday mean for Barca?
Laporta and his directors will rightly celebrate the return to the Camp Nou, and fans in attendance will be delighted to be back home.
Saturday will be special for many Barca players — including on-loan Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford, Pau Cubarsi, Fermin Lopez and Dani Olmo — as their first game wearing a blaugrana shirt at the Camp Nou. It will also be the first game on the home bench of the iconic ground for Flick and his staff.
Playing away from the team’s spiritual home has hurt the connection between the team and their core support, while the uncertainty of recent months has been embarrassing for some executives and board members.
There are also significant economic reasons that this is so important. Barca need to start earning more money from their home games, with The Athletic recently outlining in detail the delicate nature of the club’s financial situation.
The fireworks as Barcelona said goodbye to the Camp Nou in May 2023 (David Ramos/Getty Images)
The club presented a 2025-26 budget of €1.075billion at last month’s annual assembly of club members. That projection included an expected stadium income of €226million, €51m more than they earned at Montjuic last season. Increasing the Camp Nou capacity to 62,500 — and beyond — is necessary if these figures are to be reached. Drawing fans back to the stadium will also add extra revenue to Barca’s club shop and museum.
Barca are still above their La Liga-imposed salary limit for the current campaign, which means they cannot operate normally in the transfer market. Laporta has repeatedly said that €100million income from selling future revenues at 475 VIP seats at the new stadium is key to any moves being made in January and next summer.
Then there are the presidential elections due to be held between March 15 and June 15 next year. Monday’s announcement came just hours before a public event held by potential rival candidates, including Catalan fintech entrepreneur Victor Font, who lost out to Laporta in the 2021 vote.
Dissatisfaction with the return to the Camp Nou is among the issues those looking to challenge Laporta will hope to capitalise on. Both Lionel Messi’s secret visit to the Camp Nou last week and former midfielder and coach Xavi’s attendance at Monday’s event with Fort caused plenty of discussion, with club commentators wondering how they might be related to the vote.
So, Barca are home, but the fun and games around the Camp Nou look set to continue.