Barcelona has no home court available! It was forced to move to a 6,000-man stadium against Valencia on the weekend!

The plan to be reopened in November 2024 has been severely delayed as Camp Nou is still underway for a £1.25 billion renovation. Today, the new stadium, which is planned to accommodate 105,000 people, is still far from completed, and the upper stands are still a construction site.

Barcelona originally hoped to complete at least the lower level to resume home games from the beginning of this season. But the reality is: they have to continue to "drift".

has specially approved three rounds of away games, but now there is nowhere to go. As the defending champion, Barcelona has obtained the official special permission of La Liga and will arrange the first three games of the season to be played away. But according to the schedule, they will face Valencia this Sunday, which should have been the first "home night" of the season.

However, the iconic Camp Nou Stadium has not yet obtained a safety permit to host the game and is still in a "unusable" state. For the past two seasons, Barcelona has been setting its home court at the Olympic Stadium with a capacity of 55,000 people.

The embarrassing thing is that the Olympic Stadium is also unavailable due to arrangement issues this weekend. In the end, Barcelona could only arrange the heavy showdown with Valencia at the home court of its own women's football team and reserve team - John Cruiff Stadium.

6,000 people, even the rules of La Liga are "not qualified"

John Cruyff Stadium can only accommodate 6,000 fans, and the venue is so small that it has touched the bottom line of La Liga. According to regulations, the minimum capacity of the La Liga home stadium must reach 15,000 people.

Therefore, Barcelona must obtain special approval from the league again in order for the game to be held smoothly. Before the game, workers were urgently installing VAR cameras and new fiber optic networks on the site to meet La Liga broadcasting and technical standards.

Workers install VAR cameras that comply with La Liga rules on the stadium in fact, the stadium has hosted a men's football match this season - a month ago, Barcelona played against Como here to complete the preseason of the Gambel Cup.

When will the Camp Nou truly return?

According to the current progress, Barcelona needs to obtain the first use permit from the Barcelona City Council to return to the Camp Nou game. The completion of the project is expected to wait until the beginning of the 2026/27 season, when the new stadium will debut with an extremely large capacity of 105,000 people.

However, before complete, the openable capacity of Camp Nou may be limited to between 20,000 and 30,000 people, gradually expanding in stages.

Before the international match day, the defending champion Barcelona led by Frick had achieved a record of 2 wins and 1 draw in three away games, and remained unbeaten. Now, the team has to continue on a "temporary mini court" to meet the challenge with Valencia.