Barcelona announced in an official statement that the Joan Gamper Trophy match will not be played at Spotify’s Camp Nou stadium, as announced two weeks ago, due to a lack of necessary permits from the Catalan City Council.
According to the statement, the match will now be played at the 6,000-seat Johan Cruyff Stadium, after it was originally scheduled to be played at Camp Nou with a capacity of 30,000.
Meanwhile, Mundo Deportivo reported that it is currently unlikely that Barcelona will play any of its first-round matches next season at Camp Nou due to the difficulty of obtaining the necessary permits before mid-August.
Barcelona is expected to inform La Liga and UEFA of the stadium it will play at by the middle of next month. In the Champions League, in particular, the club is required to play all league matches at one venue.
This has become virtually impossible for Barcelona to do so, as construction work at Camp Nou has not yet been completed, allowing Joan Laporta’s administration to obtain the necessary permits.
According to a newspaper close to Barcelona, the current idea for the Barcelona management is to play the first phase, until next January, at the Estadio Olímpico Lluís Companys, which has hosted the Blaugrana’s matches for the past two years.
There is a small hope that Barcelona will fulfill its promise to the fans and play at Camp Nou, but the alternative plan, which is most likely to be implemented at the moment, is to return to the Estadio Olímpico Lluís Companys and wait another six months away from the Blaugrana’s historic stronghold.
