Barcelona could play first home game of the season at Camp Nou without fans in attendance | OneFootball

Barcelona’s timeline planning with the renovation works at Spotify Camp Nou has gone awfully awry in recent times and is only going from bad to worse.

First expected to be ready midway through last season, the projected date of return was pushed to the Joan Gamper Trophy earlier this month after delays in progress.

The club failed to hit that target as well, and then speculated that the first home game of the season could be against Valencia on the weekend of September 13-14.

Now, however, the administration is in a race against time to even hit that deadline, and the situation does not look good, especially given how heavily every day delayed affects the financial projections.

A game behind closed doors

As relayed earlier this week, Barcelona are fighting against time to get the occupation permit from the City Council to reopen the Camp Nou against Valencia with a capacity of at least 27,000 fans.

Now, however, Helena Condis reports that it is a real possibility that the club will not get the required permission in time for the first home game of the season.

No fans on Camp Nou return a possibility? (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

It may well be played behind closed doors as it stands, with no fans in the house to cheer the team on.

In anticipation of the same, Barcelona even opened talks with the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Montjuic to possibly use the venue one more time.

However, the stadium is set to host a Post Malone concert just two days before the game and will likely be unable to host the game.

Barcelona must thus rethink their plans, and fast, for playing a game behind closed doors would be devastating not only in an economic sense but for the players’ morale in an important game.

It remains to be seen if the club can work out a way to host the game at Montjuic just 48 hours after a massive concert, or can at least fast-track talks with the City Council over the occupation permit.

Given that there are still deficiencies in the work concerning the two stands, the Catalans hope to reopen in phase 1, however, the chances of them making the latter option work out appear slim.