Barcelona have announced that their opening home game of the season against Valencia will not be played at the Camp Nou, just five days before it was due to take place. The club had been given permission to play their first three fixtures away from home to complete the first phase of construction work, but they were still unable to obtain the necessary permits in time.
The match against Valencia will instead be played at the 6,000-seat Johan Cruyff Stadium at Barcelona's Sant Joan Despí training ground. This marks the third time the club has missed a public deadline for the stadium's reopening, having originally set an opening date of November 2024.
Barcelona did not specify when they expect to play at the Camp Nou, with upcoming home games against Getafe on 21 September and Real Sociedad on 28 September, as well as a Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain on 1 October. The club had reached a contingency agreement with the city council to use the Olympic Stadium at Montjuic until February, but a Post Malone concert there on Friday night prevented its use this weekend.
Inspectors from local and football authorities have visited the site repeatedly but have not yet granted the certificate of completed work, which is a prerequisite for formal permission to occupy the stadium. Barcelona cannot open the new Camp Nou to the public, even with part of the main stand and south end operational and an initial capacity of 27,000.
A short statement released on Tuesday evening said Barcelona were 'working intensely' to obtain the permits and thanked supporters for their patience, but offered no further details. The club's last game at the old Camp Nou was in May 2023, and work has been ongoing since then, carried out by Turkish company Limak.
