Barcelona’s £1.25billion ‘biggest sports stadium in Europe’ hit by fresh delay with key feature pushed back to 2026
BARCELONA’S return to the Nou Camp has been delayed again, with the club now set to stay away until 2026.
The project will see the iconic stadium’s capacity expand to 105,000 up from 99,354.
It was due to be completed in time for the club’s 125th anniversary last November.
There has been a fresh delay, though, according to Spanish sports news site Relevo, who report the earliest return is now slated to be October 2025.
This new delay follows an earlier push back to this month.
Relevo also say the stadium’s roof will not be installed until summer of 2026.
The Blaugrana have been playing away from home since May 2023, holding home matches at Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, which holds just 54,367 supporters.
This has seen Barcelona take a significant hit on matchday revenue, not helping their already rocky finances.
An article posted on Barcelona’s website in October 2024 claimed the return to the stadium was ‘imminent’.
The dramatic rebuild has seen the stadium gutted, leaving behind just the concrete skeleton of the stadium as a foundation.
Barcelona have played at the iconic Nou Camp since it opened in 1957.
Barcelona have invested £1.25billion into the project, which is set to make the Nou Camp the largest stadium in Europe.
It will steal that title from London‘s Wembley Stadium which holds 90,652, also knocking Twickenham Stadium down to third place.
Only six stadiums in Europe have a capacity of more than 80,000.
Despite becoming the largest in Europe, Barcelona will fall short of their original goal to create the third-largest stadium in the world.
The rebuild was initially intended to reach a capacity of 112,500, smaller only than the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in North Korea (113,281) and Narendra Modi Stadium in India (132,000).
Real Madrid recently opened a redeveloped Bernabeu costing £1.5billion with a capacity of 81,000.
But they are already planning to expand it further as they look to host the 2030 World Cup Final.