Although the season is over, workers in Barcelona are by no means thinking about holidays. The construction, or rather demolition, of Camp Nou has started as quickly as possible - there is a lot of work ahead for the team at the venue, and deadlines are coming up.

June clean-up at Camp Nou

There was a celebration, so let's get to work. FC Barcelona had a very successful season on the domestic stage, and once that was over, another project awaited the club - the new Camp Nou. Work on demolishing the stadium began immediately, and we can already see the results. A few weeks ago, one of the stands was gone and then the construction crews started removing the seats. Large cranes were driven onto the pitch. The pitch surface is also gone. Instead of the turf in the middle of the arena, booms have been erected that rise their ends up to the roof, which is placed only over a small part of the stands.

Of course, the canopy is also to look completely different in the future. It is to be the element that will significantly differentiate the new Camp Nou from the legendary arena, the former form of which is now joining the other stadiums that no longer exist. FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta spoke with excitement about the huge project: This will be the best stadium in the world, adequate for the best club in the world, the most secure, comfortable and commercial facility. The Camp Nou redevelopment is the most important investment in Barcelona since the construction of the sports facilities for the 1992 Summer Olympics.

© FC Barcelona

Two returns to Camp Nou

FC Barcelona's home matches in the 2023/24 season will be played at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, the Olympic stadium. It will also kick off the following season there, and the return to the Spotify Camp Nou is expected to coincide with the club's 125th anniversary, which is on November 29 next year. A week before the historic date, on October 22, 1899, Joan Gamper placed an ad in Los Deportes declaring his desire to found a football club, and the positive response resulted in a meeting at Gimnasio Solé on November 29, 1899. Eleven players took part, resulting in the birth of FC Barcelona. The blue and red colours of the jersey were first worn in a match against Hispania in 1900.

However, the Blaugrana's return to their facility does not mean the end of construction. After the first phase of investment, the stadium is expected to be able to hold 70,000 spectators, according to the project. Over the next two years, the venue will expand by a further 35,000 seats. The total completion of the redevelopment is expected to happen in 2025, so it is hard to say whether that moment in a Barca shirt will be lived by several players who are close to the end of their careers. These include Robert Lewandowski, or Ilkay Gundogan, who recently joined the Catalan club. Surely their return to the new and mighty Camp Nou would be a beautiful capstone to their football adventures.

© FC Barcelona