Barça will not play again in Montjuïc

Barcelona"We've lost a good client." The comment, half joking, half serious, was made by a qualified employee of Barcelona Municipal Services (BSM) in reference to Barça's return to Camp Nou. After many months of uncertainty, internal confirmation arrived in the last week of July that the Blaugrana team would no longer play any more matches at Montjuïc. It's not yet official, because victory can't be declared until the club obtains the initial occupancy permit, but among BSM employees, it's already taken for granted. The exile, then, unless there's a radical turn of events, will be over.

This will put an end to a mystery that had the entire BSM team intrigued. In May, after the last La Liga match, it was time to dismantle the football pitch and re-enable Montjuïc to host the concerts scheduled for the summer. Part of the equipment had to be moved to Camp Nou, and the rest could be destroyed. But in the end, it was carefully stored away, chastened by recent precedents and the impossibility of knowing at the time if the first phase of the remodeling of the Barça stadium would be completed. One of these elements was the turf, which was in good condition and which Barça decided at the last minute to keep and send her to Garden Tona daycare"We all assumed they wouldn't return, but the situation with the pitch made us doubt it." The club later clarified through its official channels that the intention was to market it to third parties. The Gamper could not be played at the Camp NouAt that moment, the ghosts of last season reappeared, and even the board of directors admitted that the possibility of returning to Montjuïc was real. "Anyone who works in construction knows that nothing can be 100% guaranteed. But Barça already knows the work they have to do, and it's clear, given what's at stake, that they'll do their homework between now and September," explains the same source linked to BSM. The problem hasn't been the permits.

Initially, Barça tried to blame the City Council for the delay in reopening. This didn't go down well with the council because the issue was never the licenses, but rather the state of the construction. And, as various sources consulted agree, there has been "very good will." by the Barcelona entity to get the Camp Nou reopened. A good example of this is the bureaucratic procedures, which Barça completes with remarkable speed compared to other construction projects. "But making things easy is one thing, and being negligent is another," points out one of the experts consulted. The club changed its communication policy. Since February, every time the reopening has been discussed, the City Council has been full of praise and good words.

The last few days of July have been crucial. On the 10th, the club had obtained its operating license, which includes everything from evacuation plans to fire extinguishing. An important step, but not a definitive one, since this license was conditional on meeting a series of requirements for the construction work. In other words, it wasn't operational until it had the first permit. It wasn't possible to arrive in time for the Gamper Stadium, so the next deadline was September. Elena Fort, institutional vice president and director in charge of Espai Barça, didn't accompany the team on the Asian tour to coordinate meetings with the City Council. Intense negotiations took place between the club, the council, the engineering teams working on the stadium renovation, and the ECA, the approved company that must certify that the work has been completed. "The agreement is already there, now we just need to translate what was discussed into the construction site," the sources consulted point out.

The roadmap for the Camp Nou reopening

The August roadmap involves completing all of these pending tasks inside and at the entrances to Camp Nou. During August, both La Liga and UEFA must also visit the stadium to give their approval. Finally, ECA workers are scheduled to conduct an inspection in the first week of September. If the report is favorable—as everyone assumes—we can announce to the world that Camp Nou will reopen its doors on the weekend of the 14th for the match against Valencia. As explained by AHORAAs work is progressing at an uneven pace in different parts of the stadium, only the Grandstand and the South Goal will be open initially, with a capacity of around 27,000. This is the minimum attendance Barça expects for the first La Liga match, although they hope to increase it to 45,000 if the ECA (Spanish Association of Sports and Tourism), which will conduct a new inspection that same week, authorizes the opening of the Side Goal. Finally, there will be the North Goal, where work is more delayed, and which will likely not be operational until October. When authorization is granted, the capacity will be 62,000.