FC Barcelona return to league action on Tuesday, hosting Atlético Madrid. It will be only the third match played at the renovated Spotify Camp Nou and another key test for the stadium’s infrastructure, which — despite its partial opening — still requires technical and organisational improvements.

7,500 affected and the club’s apology

During Saturday’s match against Alavés, the main issue was a failure in the ticketing system. An error in generating QR codes meant that around 7,500 socios did not receive their tickets on time and were stuck in massive queues. The club’s vice president, Maria Elena Fort, apologised for the incident, blaming it on a slowdown in ticket downloads that paralysed the app. OAB — the Oficina d’Atenció al Barcelonista — attempted to salvage the situation by providing alternative ticket formats: PDF files, location codes or visual identification.

On Monday, further technical meetings were held. The club is working on a system update to avoid a repeat of Saturday’s organisational disaster. An official statement for socios is expected, detailing procedures for the Atlético match and explaining the improvements.

After the chaos, president Joan Laporta also spoke out — with the scenes of fans waiting more than two hours outside the gates and chanting against the board becoming headline news across Spain.

After the matches against Athletic Club and Alavés, the clash with Atlético is expected to have a Champions League flavour. It is also an important test ahead of the match with Eintracht Frankfurt on 9 January, for which Barça is preparing a special display and expects high attendance.

© Alecaom

Opposition attacks: “Scandal, incompetence, manipulation”

The opposition to the current board refuses to let the scandal slide. The platform Nosaltres, led by Víctor Font, published a strong statement accusing the club’s directors of scandalous, incompetent, and permanently improvised management. According to them, Saturday’s events were not an accident but another example of Barça’s systemic problems.

The group claims the club manipulated the number of affected socios, first reporting 1,000, then 2,000, and finally 7,500 — a figure they also consider questionable. They also accuse Barça of letting crowds in without proper control, leading to chaos inside the stands, where some fans occupied passages because they did not know which seat belonged to them. The opposition further claims the club is intentionally changing season ticket holders’ locations from match to match to make more attractive sections available to tourists paying higher prices.

In his statement, Font sets out several demands, including the introduction of fixed seats for season-ticket holders starting with the match against Osasuna on 13 December, increasing the share of tickets reserved for members from 50% to 80% of the stadium’s current capacity, and publishing the full procedure for awarding the contract to the company responsible for the ticketing system. The opposition is also requesting information about compensation for the supporters affected by the recent chaos.

© FC Barcelona

Chaos with no excuses

Tuesday’s match will show whether Barcelona have learned from their organisational failure — and whether the Atlético clash brings another chapter of ticketing problems at the transitional Camp Nou.

This will not be the only challenge. It is the first weekday match, and the transport infrastructure around the stadium still operates in a provisional state. The club is urging fans to use public transport and avoid travelling by car, due to disruptions caused by ongoing construction works.