New Camp Nou finally available for use as Barcelona get go-ahead to play on Saturday against Athletic Bilbao.
Barcelona to play first game at new Camp Nou on Saturday against Athletic Bilbao.
For the first time since May 2023, Barcelona will finally play at the Camp Nou. The team declared that they had been given permission to use the 45,401 seats in the yet-to-be-finished stadium when they play Athletic Club on Saturday afternoon.
Ten days after a successful, smaller-scale test run where over 20,000 supporters attended a training session, the announcement follows a string of missed goals. Following the agreement of a €280 million title rights contract, the stadium will be known as Spotify.
A year later than planned, Barcelona will be able to open the main stand and south end against Athletic after receiving an occupation licence for phase 1B of the new Camp Nou building on Monday.
For the remainder of their Champions League campaign, Uefa has been asked to let them to switch from the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium at Montjuïc, where they have played for the previous two seasons, to the new stadium. On December 9, they aim to play Eintracht Frankfurt at the Camp Nou.
Barcelona chose to keep playing at Montjuïc since they could only use 27,000 seats in the first phase, 1A, of the stadium that was still under construction, despite receiving a license to occupy it in mid-October. Two and a half years ago, Barcelona played their final match at the Camp Nou against Mallorca.