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Barcelona make final stadium decisions for Girona and Olympiacos games amid Camp Nou delay

Written by Sebastian Sternik
Last Update: October 10, 2025

Barcelona supporters will have to wait longer than anticipated for their return to the Camp Nou after the club confirmed delay rumours in an official statement.

The Spanish champions were hopeful of returning to the world-famous ground on October 18 for a La Liga derby clash against Girona, with a limited capacity of 27,000 originally set to gather in the Tribuna and Gold Sur sections.

Their Champions League clash with Olympiacos on October 21 was also expected to take place at the Camp Nou with the same level of capacity.

Those hopes were dashed after the club revealed on Tuesday that they were unable to get the necessary licence, forcing both fixtures to be played at the Olympic Stadium on the city's Montjuic hill.

This is the latest of many delays throughout this project, with infrastructure problems and lack of official permits continuing to frustrate the Catalan giants.

The club are now set to wait until the temporary capacity is increased to 45,000, meaning the official return to the Camp Nou could now take place as late as November – exactly one year from the original expected return date.

Barcelona have three home games that month, starting with Elche on the second, Athletic Bilbao on the 23rd and Alaves on the 30th.

Explaining the latest development in an official statement, the club said: “FC Barcelona informs that the match corresponding to matchday 9 of LaLiga, against Girona FC, which will be played on Saturday, October 18, at 4:15 p.m., will be played at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys.

“The Club continues to work to obtain the necessary administrative permits for the opening of the Spotify Camp Nou and is in permanent contact with the Barcelona City Council in order to be able to carry out the relevant inspections in the coming days.

“In this context, although it is expected to receive the first occupancy licence for phase 1A (Tribune and Goal) soon – which would allow an occupation of up to 27,000 attendees – FC Barcelona will work with the aim of returning to the Spotify Camp Nou once the licence corresponding to phase 1B (Grandstand, Goal and Lateral) has been obtained, which will increase the capacity to 45,000 spectators.”

Camp Nou Construction Development
Camp Nou under construction – Photo by IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

Continued delays impacting Barcelona’s finances

Barca were forced to play their first two home games of the season at their Sant Joan Despi training ground, after municipal engineers concluded that construction work at Camp Nou had not reached the required safety standards.

While the club were able to pick up 6-0 and 3-0 victories over Valencia and Getafe, Barcelona took a significant financial hit by staging the fixtures in front of just under 6,000 spectators.

The La Liga champions have splashed upwards of £1.3bn on the rebuild, which will give the stadium a 105,000 capacity – making it by far the biggest stadium in European football.

Security cameras cause further Camp Nou chaos

One of the reasons for the latest delay is the discovery of a serious error in the design of the security system installation, according to a report by journalist Xavi Espinosa.

The Diario Sport reporter revealed that Barcelona have been installing the new camera security system at a cost of over £430,000.

An apparent coordination failure by the architects ended up with the cameras facing the outside of the stadium. As a result, these will now have to be readjusted in order to meet the required criteria.

While the reconstruction chaos has caused a lot of frustration and, at times, embarrassment, the final product is expected to generate a lot of money for the financially stricken side.

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Sebastian Sternik

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