The never-ending saga of Barcelona’s return to their home stadium is an annoying and frustrating thing for fans and players to deal with, and the newest update from the man in charge isn’t that encouraging either.
Speaking in an interview this week, Barça president Joan Laporta was asked about the delays in the return to Camp Nou. The club initially wanted to hold this year’s Joan Gamper Trophy against Como but had to move the game to the Johan Cruyff Stadium, and there are serious doubts about their
ability to play any Champions League group stage matches at Camp Nou, with a return to the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium also not ruled out.
It’s quite the mess, and Laporta tried to explain the reasons for the delays while also remaining firm in his resolution to return to Camp Nou “as soon as possible.”
“I don’t know when, but as soon as possible. One thing here is that the volume of work carried out and the conversations with the City Council led us to review the work plan, and this had an impact on the established deadlines we had previously established, even though we proposed launching the Spotify Camp Nou by sectors. Other clubs have done so with their stadiums, and the City Council’s resolution was very explicit, stating that the progress of the works made it impossible to obtain the first occupancy permit, which is what’s missing.
“I think there will always be solutions. We’re basically working on returning to Spotify Camp Nou. There are alternatives, but these are contingencies we’re not considering right now. We’re focused on returning to Spotify Camp Nou.
“We’re not considering the possibility of not returning. All the budgets we’ve made for next season and all the commitments we have under the financing contract are included in returning to the Spotify Camp Nou. We’d have to redo everything. We’re used to dealing with complicated situations, but we always hope that things will calm down when the time comes.”
It’s honestly a bunch of word salad and a big promise that hasn’t been delivered for almost a year now. Returning to Camp Nou is crucial to the club’s finances and to bring back a true home stadium atmosphere that simply doesn’t exist at Montjuïc.
But Laporta doesn’t know when that return will happen. So we keep waiting.
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