Laporta spoke with reporters in Paris ahead of Monday night’s Ballon d’Or ceremony in the city, expressing hope for the various nominated Barcelona players to win as many of the accolades on offer as possible. But he also gave the latest update on the club’s ongoing efforts to resume playing games at Camp Nou in the immediate future after months of setbacks.
Barcelona originally wanted to be back at Camp Nou, at reduced capacity, last season, but kept having to push the date back and back. Then, it was the Joan Gamper Trophy on August 10 that was being targeted, only for that to be played at Estadi Johan Cruyff instead. After three successive away games at the start of the new La Liga season, the Catalans have now had successive league matches at the Johan Cruyff, which can only hold 6,000 fans and is therefore a significant hit to typical matchday revenue. But Laporta insists that all the necessary work for the partial re-opening has been carried out, along with receipt of most of the required certificiates. It’s only sign off on the permitted safe occupancy, far below the full 105,000 capacity, that he claims is missing.
“A lot will depend on what the City Council officials say,” Laporta explained, via Mundo Deportivo. “We’ve done the work, we have the CFO, we have the construction control certificate, we have the fire department report, we have the environmental report…La Liga and UEFA have saidthe pitch is ready to play; we’re waiting for initial occupancy.
“We know these are processes that need to be carried out. We don’t want to put more pressure than necessary, but there comes a time when we believe this is very close. We’ll see what the city council officials say. We are in the final stages ofour frequent visits. We are prepared for anything. All the requested corrections have been made. We hope this will happen as soon as possible.”
Barcelona won’t likely play at Camp Nou before the October international break. Even with council sign-off, staging Sunday’s La Liga clash with Real Sociedad there at such short notice feels like too much of an ask. The Champions League meeting with Paris Saint-Germain isn’t going to be at the stadium either, already confirmed for the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys. Barcelona’s first home game after the international break is the visit of regional rivals Girona on October 18, almost a month from now. Full completion of the building work is potentially still years away.
