Barcelona confirm further Camp Nou delays: Olympiakos clash will remain at Montjuic | OneFootball

Barcelona will not be returning to Camp Nou after the October international break by the looks of things, after the club confirmed that their next home Champions League game would not be taking place there. The Catalan giants are still yet to receive the licence to reopen the ground.

Local media with links to the club have been providing updates that the club hopes to be back at Camp Nou in the coming weeks for much of the last month, but there is no clear sign of any significant progress towards that matter. Nevertheless, the news of further delays comes as something of a surprise, after UEFA confirmed their clash with Olympiakos on the 21st of October would be taking place at Spotify Camp Nou.

Barcelona announce Montjuic stay for Olympiakos clash

There is a slim chance that Barcelona do reopen Camp Nou for their next home game against Girona on the 18th of October, their first game after the international break. Yet Barcelona have confirmed that the Greek giants will be visiting the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys and not Camp Nou.

Image via FC Barcelona

Camp Nou return could be nearly two months away

This follows on from some reports that Barcelona are considering pushing back their Camp Nou return until the second half of November, after the third international break. The rationale behind the further delays would be financial, with the 55,000 capacity Montjuic able to host double the amount of fans as the first phase of Camp Nou, which is set to reopen with 27,000  fans allowed in.

Although it does cost Barcelona between €300k and €900k to rent the stadium from the City Council, it may make more sense for Barcelona to wait until the second phase of Camp Nou opening, when they plan to have a capacity of 45,000. That said, commitments to investors might be the decisive factor.