Barcelona President Joan Laporta – ‘I don’t know when we’ll return to Camp Nou’ | OneFootball

Barcelona President Joan Laporta did not confirm when asked whether the club could return in time for their scheduled La Liga debut at Camp Nou. Their renovation work on the stadium is already eight months behind schedule, and at a minimum will end up being ten months delayed.

The club had announced their return for the 10th of August, where they were due to host the Joan Gamper trophy match against Como. Yet this week it was confirmed the game would take place at the 6,000-seater Johan Cruyff Stadium at the club’s sports complex. Speaking in an interview with MD, Laporta could only say their return would be 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.”

Image via RAC1

Laporta confirmed that the plan had been to hold the Joan Gamper trophy at Camp Nou, ‘if there were no setbacks’. Their plan was to host 27,000-32,000 fans opening only certain sections of the stadium, and on the wisdom of setting a return date, commented ‘If you don’t set dates, you don’t create tension either.’

Alternative options to Camp Nou if it is not ready

The next big question is whether Camp Nou will be ready for the weekend of the 14th of September, the date of Barcelona’s first game against Valencia. If it is not, Montjuic is hosting a Post Malone concert on the 12th, which would potentially rule out using the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys. Laporta dismissed the idea of the concert moving.

“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.”

It was confirmed that they have asked for their first Champions League game to be away from home. On the prospect of returning to Montjuic for a longer period this season, Laporta explained that the financial side of things made that different.

“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.”

Barcelona will not claim fines against Limak group

When the deal with construction group Limak was announced, Barcelona made a point of highlighting a delay clause, in which the Turkish firm would be liable for a €1m payment for each day that the project was behind schedule. Excercising that clause would be worth hundreds of millions, but Laporta said they were reluctant to do so.

“I hope it doesn’t come to the point where we are claiming penalties because it’s true that a series of penalties have accumulated due to delays in certain phases of the project, but we can’t blame them directly for these delays. There have been some, which is normal for a project like this.”

Image via RTVE

“We’re also understanding. What we want is to finish the work, not claim penalties. We want this to be over as soon as possible. We have a very motivated company like Limak. We’re all in the same boat. We’re like a family; we meet every two weeks. The owner of Limak comes, the CEO, who is his daughter, comes with his children, who work for the company.”

“They know they’ve accumulated penalties, but they’re confident that if the objectives are met, this will be subject to negotiation. And I think there won’t be any problems in this regard because what we want is for the project to be completed, to be completed well, with the level of quality and safety we all desire.”

Barcelona will play their first three La Liga matches away from home as agreed with the league in order to facilitate their return. The club have expressed confidence that this will not affect the inclusion of their €100m VIP seats lease in their salary limit.