FC Barcelona announce intention to continue leasing Olympic Stadium until end of season

FC Barcelona have annoucned that they will request to extend the lease agreement of the Olympic Stadium in Montjuïc through to May 20.

If approved, the lease deal will let the blaugrana stay in Montjuïc until the end of the season, with their last home game scheduled against Villarreal on the weekend of May 18. 

The club have poitned out that their objective is still to play matches this season at the new Spotify Camp Nou, which remains under construction.

However, unless given special dispensation, the rest of Barça's Champions League campaign will be played out at the Olympic Stadium no matter what, as UEFA rules state that a club cannot change their home stadium during a Champions League season, unless it is between the league and knockout phases. 

FC Barcelona announced that city authorities have learned that a musical event which had reserved the use of the Olympic Stadium in May "will most likely not be effective."

Although never confirmed, it has been widely reported that The Rolling Stones were due to perform a concert in the stadium on the date of the clásico weekend in May, an overlapping of dates that could have led to problems in where the Barça-Real Madrid game would be played. 

Earlier on Thursday, the president of third-tier club Gimnàstic de Tarragona offered the use of their 14,500 capacity stadium to Barça for the clásico.  

Yet, now it seems that the Rolling Stones gig will not go ahead, leaving the use of the Olympic Stadium free for FC Barcelona.

"The club would like to emphasize that the main objective is to play matches at the end of the season at the Spotify Camp Nou, which is why efforts will be intensified to achieve this goal," the club reiterated in a statement.