Barcelona dealt further blow by La Liga over Camp Nou woes | OneFootball

Barcelona are due to host their first home game of the season on the 14th of September against Valencia. It was scheduled to be their return to Spotify Camp Nou, but now their are further doubts about their stadium being ready in time.

A number of proposals have been made should Barcelona be forced to delay the return again, including playing at Montjuic (unlikely due to a concert on the Friday night), playing at the Estadi Johan Cruyff (6,000 capacity), and playing behind closed doors. The latest idea had been for Barcelona to request that the game become an away tie, with Valencia hosting the game at Mestalla instead.

La Liga to reject fixture switch

However Cadena Cope report that La Liga have no plans to allow Barcelona to have a fourth straight game away from home at the start of the season. They say that it is against the rules to change the order of the games in the calendar, whereas Barcelona had made their request before the season began to play the first three games away from home.

Image via FC Barcelona

Barcelona are yet to communicate an alternative to La Liga, and they say that currently the most likely alternatives are the Estadi Johan Cruyff, or Girona’s ground, Montilivi. The latter is around an hour to the north of Barcelona, and can host just under 15,000 fans.

Barcelona likely to miss another deadline

Meanwhile Marca say that more deadlines are set to be missed. Barcelona had targeted this Monday (25th of August) as the date they wanted to send the Certificate of Completion to the City Council, as they seek an opening licence for Camp Nou. That would be to open the stadium to 27,000 fans. Yet that is yet to happen, and there is no clarity on when it will be the case.

Champions League decision nears

It is not lost that Barcelona have until Thursday to explain to UEFA where they will be playing the league phase of the Champions League. The Blaugrana must stick to one stadium for the entire league phase, and although UEFA have agreed for Barcelona to begin away from home, providing them extra time to ensure it is ready, they will require that licence before the 28th of August if they want to play it at Camp Nou. It is no surprise Barcelona have secured the use of Montjuic until February as a result.