FC Barcelona will return to the to the revamped Spotify Camp Nou this summer to play the Gamper Trophy game.
President Joan Laporta said in a television interview that the club will return to their under renovation home stadium for a test run of the venue.
The Joan Gamper Trophy is an annual football exhibition match held in August, before the start of Barcelona’s La Liga season, where top division clubs from the world compete against them.
Catalan News said the match will serve as a pilot test before the new stadium can officially host competitive games once more.
As such, it’s expected that Barça will ask La Liga to play their first games of the 2025/26 campaign all away from home, as it’s unlikely the stadium will be ready to host competitive encounters until late September or October.
The Spotify Camp Nou is a stadium in Barcelona and the home of the LaLiga team FC Barcelona since its opening in 1957.
It is currently undergoing renovation and with a planned increased seating capacity of 105,000 it will be the stadium with the largest capacity in Spain and Europe and the third largest association football stadium in the world.
Renovation of the Spotify Camp Nou Stadium commenced after the end of the 2022-2023 seasons. Final completion of all renovations is scheduled for June 2026 although the club may return before that date. Since revamp work has been going on, the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium has served as Barcelona’s home ground.
Laporta said in the television interview, “If all goes well, we will do a pilot test, an important test, at the Gamper match. We plan to do it on August 9 or 10 at the Spotify Camp Nou.
“We are working with this hypothesis, which will surely turn out okay since everything is aimed at doing an important test before an official league match. The Gamper is the best way to test how the stadium will be, the accesses, the conditions.”
The Barça president confirmed that the club’s 2-3 defeat to Villarreal would be the Catalan club’s last home game in Montjuïc.
The club’s lease at the ground has run out and the blaugrana have just one more match to play this season, away to Athletic Club.
The club’s iconic Camp Nou stadium has been a construction site ever since summer 2023, after the club last played a game there.
FC Barcelona have already wrapped up the La Liga title this year.
670,000 fans took to the streets to celebrate with the team as the players paraded their domestic treble of the La Liga, Copa del Rey, and Spanish Super Cup trophies in an open-top bus route through the city centre.
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