BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona aims to return belatedly to its Camp Nou stadium after two years of reconstruction work for a preseason friendly on Aug. 10.
Club president Joan Laporta set the date for the traditional season-opening Joan Gamper Trophy game when he spoke in a television interview late Monday.
Barcelona has played in the city’s Olympic Stadium for two years — and won La Liga this season — during the massive overhaul to create a 105,000-capacity home that would be the biggest soccer stadium in Europe.
The original target was a November 2024 return to a partially finished venue, then Barcelona said in February it hoped to play games in Camp Nou before the end of this season with 60,000 spectators.
The February update also detailed plans to complete the project by adding a roof at the end of the 2025-26 season.
The Camp Nou is a potential candidate to stage the 2030 World Cup final which Spain will co-host with Portugal and Morocco. The more likely options are Real Madrid’s renovated Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and a 115,000-seat venue planned in Casablanca, Morocco.
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The Associated Press
