On May 11, Barcelona will host Real Madrid in La Liga. They just don’t know where.
One of the explanations, why are the delays in the renewal of Camp Nou, his home. Another explanation why are the Rolling Stones.
The Catalan club will return to the camp before the realization of 2025 (and hoped to be on its 125th anniversary last November), but a slow progress in reconstruction means that they had to be larger that remain in Montjuic, the Olympic stadium in Barcelona, Which can involve about 50,000 people less.
Announcement
Two weeks ago, the club announced an agreement with the Municipal Council to play in Montjuic until April 23, the day they welcome Mallorca in the League. But playing all games beyond this date on the floor is confusing due to the fact that there are plans for Rolling Stones to make a concert in Montjuic the weekend of May 11 to 12 (the same date as the classic) , as the beginning of the start point of the initial point of its European tour.
This would leave Barcelona less characteristics when it comes to one of the largest games of the global football calendar, and that can have primary repercussions in the Liga race. This weekend is Matchweek 35 of 38 of the League season.
Right now, Barca hope to be able to play the game at the Camp Nou and they have been assured that the work there is progressing well. They cannot rely on that, though, and the club’s board are studying other possible solutions. There was a board meeting on Tuesday, January 28 and the subject was discussed.
With the control clock, a will is done in the coming weeks.
To help explain the state of play, The Athletic spoke to people at Barcelona and others who work at the city council, with all speaking on condition of anonymity to protect their jobs.
Camp Nou Remajors the main choice for Barcelona’s board of directors. At every turn they believe it’s imaginable and it’s affected by the feedback they gained from Limak, the corporate structure to blame for the renovation work.
But since repeated delays were already delayed, the club had to start presenting other plans in case you are not ready.
A solution discussed within the club was to play against El Clasico abroad. Barcelona would be looking for a suitable venue in Europe, rather than in the United States due to wider logistical difficulties, to meet the call for such a game. that Wembley in London and Stade de France in Paris are stadiums that the club has considered.
Although not ideal, a merit of the game would be to make the CLASSIC brand bigger. This can be a potential source of new revenue if enthusiasts from Europe or even the Global can attend a classic instead of just watching on TV.
However, it would be far from being simple for the Barcelona fans base in Spain, when you finance and logistics care about traveling abroad to see your team play in “Home”. There may also be less control over who has your hands in a ticket. .
In recent discussions, there has been a consensus among the members of the Board, and added that President Joan Laporta, who moves the game is not the most productive direction for the club to follow. There is a threat of too many impartial enthusiasts or Madrid in a classic that can be decisive in the name of name.
Announcement
They have also spoken about playing the match at an alternative venue in Spain, which would be simpler for Barcelona fans, but there is still a concern about who purchases tickets.
The preference is, therefore, to stay in Barcelona, or as close as imaginable to Barcelona. Local radio station Catalunya Radio reported that Laporta even prefers to play it at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, which houses the team at the moment in Barcelona, the women’s first team and the academy teams.
Located next to the Club Education Center, the capacity is incredibly limited: there are only about 6,000 seats available. He plays there and would mean that a giant part of the price ticket holders of the club’s season would not be to see the game. That same report advised that if Barcelona were to this option, they would load the transitional positions to develop the capacity, but even then the maximum would be 12,000.
Another stadium in the Catalan capital is RCDE Stadium, where their local rivals Espanyol play and which has a capacity of 40,000 people. This is completely off-the-table though given the rivalry between both clubs.
There is also Montilivi, the Gérona stadium, a hundred km northeast of Barcelona. Relations between Barcelona and Girona are better, but the stadium is small. Around 15,000 people can attend league matches in Montilivi and this already includes transient seats.
Not through things.
Barcelona had expected to have returned to the Camp Nou by this point of the season, so the city council agreed to rent Montjuic to musical producers Doctor Music. According to the company’s CEO, Neo Sala, Doctor Music is not willing to budge in their deal.
“Just like us in Spain, there are promoters in Europe right now who are working on a possible European tour for The Rolling Stones, which is not yet confirmed but we hope will happen,” he said in an interview with La Vanguardia earlier this month.
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“We have all the dates in pencil. We showed them in May at the Olympic stadium (Montjuic). And in no way can the Municipal Council recover the commitment made. It would be the first time in our 32-year appointments with them. »
In spite of this, which means that Barcelona has a headache with regard to the staging of this classic, the club has an intelligent appointment with the Rolling Stones. The organization’s logo was presented in its shirts for The first classic in Montjuic in 2023, a collaboration that materialized thanks to the Barcelona Sponsorship Agreement with Spotify. Various members of the organization have been invited to the lead box in Montjuïc since this party.
Yes. As of now, Barcelona confirmed they would play their last game in Montjuic on April 23, in La Liga against Mallorca.
After that date, the Catalans have two more La Liga games to play at home: against Real Madrid and Villarreal. The latter will be played after El Clasico, between May 18 and May 25.
Sources involved in the conversations on the subject told The Athletic that as soon as a concert takes place in Montjuic in May, it is highly unlikely that Barcelona could return to play games there this season.
The state of the pitch would be heavily impacted by the event, making it very tough for the club to provide a brand-new pitch up to the necessary standards in time for that Villarreal match.
Barcelona’s possible participation in the last stages of the Champions League and the Copa del Rey will be affected. The last Barcelona can play a home game in the Copa Del Rey would be a semi-crop at the moment level at the beginning of April. The last position was taken at La Cartuja in Seville on April 26.
In the Champions League, the last Barcelona can play a home game would be the level of moment of the semi-finals, if they had to go that far, and the games take position from May 6 to 7, 4 or five days before The volume of the stones can be in the city.
Barcelona executives remain confident that if they were to be involved in the Champions League semi-finals, they could play at Montjuic in those days before the concert. The city council did not comment when asked about this by The Athletic.
Two weeks ago, Barcelona announced they would be staying at Montjuic until the end of April and that was confirmation of the latest delay in the works at Camp Nou.
Initially, the club had aimed to be back at their stadium — with reduced attendance — for their 125th anniversary, on November 29, 2024. In October, the club confirmed that would not be possible and shifted their focus to being back for the second half of the 2024-25 season. A month later, another club statement pushed that back to February 2025.
Announcement
Now there are doubts that the team will play in Camp Nou of this season, despite the club’s leaders who insisted that there will be no more delays.
“There is still no date to go back,” showed the vice president of Barcelona, Elena Fort, in an interview with the Radio Rac 1 Radio Radio 1 in January. “This will take place, as soon as possible. But it will be this season.
La Liga president Javier Tebas showed that they had not been officially informed of Barcelona’s adjustments to the El Clasico venue, however, he is open to the concept that it is played abroad.
“We, as La Liga, know the same thing as you (media), what we read there,” he said a Madrid Sports Media Association (APDM) occasion this weekArray “There were game reports in some other country. In this case, we examined it, that’s for sure. Barcelona would also want Real Madrid’s authorization. »»
As discussed through Thebes, Real Madrid will be consulted on any place replacement.
Last year, Tebas conceded in an interview with Spanish outlet Expansion that he was working on a plan to have La Liga games played in other countries in the near future.
“I think it could be in the 2025-2026 season. An official game in the United States would bolster our position in that market.”
(Top photo: Images by Alberto Gardin / SOPA / Lightrocket Getty Images)