Barcelona to play first game at renovated Camp Nou on Saturday against Athletic Bilbao

Barcelona will finally play at the Camp Nou, 909 nights later. The Catalan club announced they have been granted a licence to occupy 45,401 seats of the renovated stadium, which is yet to be completed, against Athletic Club Bilbao on Saturday afternoon.

The announcement comes after a series of missed targets and 10 days after a successful, smaller-scale test run in which a training session held there was attended by more than 20,000 supporters. The stadium will carry the name Spotify after a €280m title rights deal was agreed in February 2022.

Barcelona were granted an occupation licence for phase 1B of the construction of the new Camp Nou on Monday, allowing them to open the main stand and south end against Athletic, a year later than scheduled. A request has been made for Uefa to allow them to change their designated home ground from the Lluís Companys Olympic stadium at Montjuïc, where they have played for the past two seasons, to the new stadium for the rest of their Champions League campaign. They hope to be able to play at the Camp Nou against Eintracht Frankfurt on 9 December.

A licence to occupy the first phase, 1A, of the under-construction stadium had been granted in mid-October but that only allowed Barcelona to use 27,000 seats so they decided to continue to play at Montjuïc, which has a capacity of more than 55,000. They also played two games this season at the 6,000-seat Johan Cruyff stadium at the training ground owing to clashes with events at Montjuïc. The next phase of occupation would include the north stand, taking them over 60,000, with the final capacity reaching 105,000.

Barcelona’s last game at the Camp Nou came against Mallorca in May 2023. They were managed at the time by Xavi Hernández, and that was the last appearance for the club of Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.

Barcelona had hoped to begin this season at the new stadium and had been granted permission to play their first three fixtures away from home to complete the first phase of construction work and apply for the requisite licences. That was followed by the international break, allowing them extra margin. But with five days remaining before that match, they announced that they would be facing Valencia at the Johan Cruyff. A Post Malone concert had prevented them from using Montjuïc and they also played Getafe at the Johan Cruyff, although they were subsequently able to return to the Olympic stadium.

Work started on the stadium immediately after facing Mallorca in May 2023, carried out by the Turkish company Limark, which promised a quicker construction than other bids. The initial plan had been to play at the new stadium in front of 62,000 fans on the club’s 125 anniversary late last year. “If there is not a pandemic or a worldwide catastrophe, we will open the Camp Nou on 29 November 2024,” said the vice-president, Elena Fort. Joan Laporta, the president, said that they would reopen with 70% capacity.

Barcelona subsequently expressed their hope that the stadium would be in December, the new year, and then the spring in time for the clásico there in May 2025. Laporta announced that Barcelona’s traditional pre-season curtain-raiser would be played at the Camp Nou on 10 August, under the slogan “we’re back”. Now they finally are. Last Sunday, Lionel Messi had sneaked in to look around while the team were playing in Vigo; this Saturday, 45,4501 fans will be able to follow him through the doors of their new home.