18th November 2025
November 18 – FC Barcelona will walk out at Spotify Camp Nou again this weekend, ending a 30-month exile that has taken them from Montjuïc’s open bowl to the training grounds and back.
Athletic Club arrive on Saturday afternoon for what will feel less like a routine league fixture and more like a soft relaunch of one of football’s great theatres – albeit at half strength.
The stadium, which has been in the process of £1.1billion renovation since May 2023, will reopen with a temporary capacity of 45,401 while work continues. It’s a far cry from the 105,000-seat colossus the club hopes to unveil eventually, but symbolically it matters: Barcelona are home again.
The project – originally timed to coincide with the club’s 125th anniversary last year – has been beset by delays, paperwork snags and an ever-shifting building schedule. In the meantime, Barça have made do with the 55,000-seat Olympic Stadium on Montjuïc hill, and even dipped into the 6,000-capacity Johan Cruyff Stadium this season when safety permits for the Camp Nou failed to materialise.
The club have confirmed they have secured the Phase 1B occupancy licence, which unlocks the lateral stand and pushes the allowed crowd towards the mid-40,000s. Phase 1A – the tribuna and south goal – was already approved, but work on the north end (Phase 1C) continues.
A club statement framed the return as the next step in “the comprehensive transformation” of the new Camp Nou. The club hinted that they are also in discussions with UEFA about hosting next week’s Champions League tie against Eintracht Frankfurt at the stadium, with that decision set to be revealed in the coming days.
The last official match at the ground came via a 3-0 win over Mallorca on 28 May 2023. Much has changed since then, not least the emergence of wonderkid Lamine Yamal, who has become the most valuable young footballer on the planet without starting a match at his club’s own home.
The teenager marked the announcement by changing his Instagram profile picture to one of him pointing at the badge, writing: “Montjuïc was the beginning. Camp Nou is where history will be written.”
Saturday will be the first taste of something familiar: Barcelona back under their own lights, even if the wiring still needs finishing.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at [moc.l1763462582labto1763462582ofdlr1763462582owedi1763462582sni@g1763462582niwe.1763462582yrrah1763462582](javascript:;)