Why is Barcelona’s first home game not at Nou Camp?

Marcus Rashford could play his first home game of the season for Barcelona in a stadium far smaller than the one he was expecting.

Despite hopes that Barcelona would begin the defence of their title at the newly renovated Nou Camp stadium, they will instead play their first home match at the much smaller 6,000-seater Johan Cruyff Stadium.

That is because the Nou Camp is still not ready for fans, despite the club saying they would be back playing games there in November 2024, to coincide with the club’s 125th anniversary.

The club had been granted permission to play their first three fixtures away from home to allow the completion of construction work. But even with a little extra time thanks to the international break that followed, the club haven’t yet obtained documents that allow it to open.

The Olympic Stadium, used as their substitute home ground for the past two seasons, is the venue for a Post Malone concert two days before the match – ruling it out of use for Sunday.

The Nou Camp has served as Barcelona’s home ground since it opened in 1957.

But the Nou Camp is not ready to host Sunday’s La Liga home game against Valencia (20:00 BST) – with the switch to a much smaller venue only announced on Tuesday.

The club said in a statement that it is working to get a permit to open the stadium “in the coming weeks”.

That permit, known as the Final Construction Certificate, is granted by the city council.

Reports in Spanish media suggest the stadium is ready to be used, pending the necessary clearance.

In the meantime, using the 6,000-capacity Johan Cruyff Stadium – as opposed to a fully operational Nou Camp, or even the 50,000 capacity Olympic Stadium – is going to cost Barcelona a lot of matchday revenue.

“Logically it concerns us more than it worries us,” said a club source regarding the revenue loss.

The Johan Cruyff Stadium, home venue for Barcelona’s women’s and youth teams, isn’t officially big enough to host a La Liga game. League rules say a ground must hold at least 8,000 fans.

But an exception has been made in this case on “architectural” grounds.

With so few spaces available, the club set up a ballot for tickets – and only those who had held full season tickets for both 2023-24 and 2024-25 could enter it.

‘That’s 16,151 members,” according to the club.

Miquel Taberner, like a lot of Barcelona fans, was unimpressed.

“Most fans feel disappointed, and of course I’m one of them,” he said.

“Camp Nou is not just a stadium, it is the heart of the club and our matchday experience is not the same without it. We understand the work being done is necessary, but the absence is strongly felt.

Valencia – looking to improve on last season’s 12th-place finish – have contacted La Liga to question both the choice of venue and the lateness of the switch.

“We were concerned about the uncertainty of not having a designated venue in the same week as the match,” the club said.

“We have been told from FC Barcelona that we could have 290 tickets for our fans so there will finally be Valencia fans in the stands.”

Valencia striker Diego Lopez, speaking on Thursday, acknowledged the situation was far from ideal.

A Barcelona source told BBC Sport that the Nou Camp will be ready to welcome fans for their league match on 28 September against Real Sociedad.

However, they could not confirm whether Barcelona would play their next home match, on 21 September against Getafe, at the Nou Camp.

“We will try to speed it up if possible but we won’t know until the middle of next week,” the source said.

Fans like Miquel are less optimistic.

“Officially, the goal is 2026, but honestly I do foresee a longer view. Large projects often face delays and that’s OK. Our expectations are tempered,” he said.

“The hope is that whenever it opens, it is delivered to the highest standard and worthy of the club’s identity.”

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