Barcelona are considering making a proposal to La Liga, allowing the team to start next season away in the early stages. According to The Athletic, Barca's board expect the Camp Nou stadium to return in September after upgrading. Therefore, Barca's first matches in La Liga 2024-2025 before that time could be all away matches.
If the September 2025 deadline is guaranteed, the progress of the Camp Nou upgrade will be 10 months later than the original plan. The club's top team hopes the project will be completed in November 2024 to celebrate the club's 125th anniversary.
This delay has led to Barca having to extend the contract to rent Lluis Companys until the end of the 2024-2025 season. Blaugrana are forced to play the first matches of the 2025-2026 La Liga season away because the Lluis Companys stadium has been rented from June onwards for other sports and artistic activities. Artists and groups such as Aitana, Guns N' Roses, Black Pink and Post Malone have booked a rental schedule for Lluis Companys from June to September this year.
If Barca propose La Liga to change the match schedule, this is not unprecedented. Barcelona is the team that has had a flexible schedule for this season. In the second half of the season, the Blaugrana have played more home matches as they were all originally expected to return to Camp Nou from November 2024. Previously in 2022, Real Madrid was allowed to play their first 3 matches in La Liga away because the Bernabeu was renovating some items at that time.
The first time Barca admitted that their return to Camp Nou would be delayed was in October 2024. At that time, the return time frame was set for the second half of the 2024-2025 season. However, in November 2024, the time frame was pushed further, at least until February 2025.
Since then, the team has had to extend the lease of the Lluis Companys stadium twice. In January, an email sent to the team's internal team revealed that the first stadium lease extension will not be until April 23, 2025. Then in March, another email was sent, announcing that returning to Camp Nou would not be possible this season.
From now until the end of this season, Barca will play a number of very important matches at Lluis Companys, deciding whether they will have a title this season or not. First is the return El Clasico match in La Liga against Real Madrid. Before that, they will have the first leg of the semi-final against Inter Milan in the Champions League.
The early or late return of Camp Nou will greatly affect Barcelona's financial situation. First, they will not have to spend money to rent the Lluis Companys stadium anymore. Once Camp Nou returns, in addition to the usual increase in seating, the number of VIP seats will be similar. Although there are no exact calculations, auditing firm Crowe said that the revenue from selling VIP tickets at Camp Nou for one season is "very huge", possibly up to 100 million Euros.
