Barcelona to take final call over stadium situation next week amid Camp Nou delays | OneFootball

Joan Laporta’s inability to provide an honest and clear update on the renovation of the Spotify Camp Nou is now beginning to get out of hand, especially with Barcelona once again staring at a delay in the resumption of games at the venue.

The club president has made many optimistic claims about the reopening of the stadium in recent months, all of which have eventually fallen short, and Camp Nou continues to be far from ready, even just three weeks before the first home game of the season.

With Barcelona unlikely to be able to host Valencia at the Camp Nou in all probability and the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys also busy that weekend for a Post Malone concert, Laporta and Co. are under pressure to find a venue they can use to play the game.

A critical week ahead

As relayed by Mundo Deportivo in a recent report, the beginning of next week will be key in deciding how Barcelona move forward in the stadium issue, both domestically and for the UEFA Champions League.

There is barely any time left to make the required progress and secure the First Occupancy Licence, and scheduling the game at Camp Nou thus looks close to impossible.

When will the Spotify Camp Nou be ready? (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

Two options are thus on the team’s radar for the Valencia game – either play it at Girona’s Montilivi stadium that weekend or request La Liga to reschedule the clash against Valencia to Mestalla by interchanging the fixtures.

After all, any game after that can be scheduled at Montjuic once more, even if the Camp Nou’s reopening is further delayed.

For UEFA competitions, the situation is more complicated for the club must play all league phase games at the same venue and communicate their final decision by next Thursday.

While UEFA have allowed the team to play their first game away, giving some more leeway with regard to getting Camp Nou ready, all signs point to Montjuic being named the home for the league phase.

The coming week, nevertheless, will be key in finalising both decisions.