When will FC Barcelona move back into the Camp Nou? How are construction works going?

FC Barcelona haven’t played in the Camp Nou since May 2023, with the iconic stadium turned into a construction site ever since as the club renovate their home. 

Officially, the Catalan giants say they plan to move back into the Camp Nou during the current 2024/25 season, but the latest reports, coming in March 2025, say that the club won't return to their historic stadium until November 2025 at the earliest.

Whenever Barça move back to their historic home, it will only be at roughly 60% capacity for some months or more than a year, as construction continues on the third ring of stands. 

But how are works going on the Camp Nou stadium and what will it look like once it’s ready? 

In January 2025, the club confirmed they will not return to their iconic home until at least April.

Most recently, the club announced the extension of the lease of the Olympic Stadium in Montjuïc even further, to May 20, which would cover the rest of their home games this season. 

Barça's last home game of the season is set to be played on the weekend of May 18 when they take on Villarreal. 

If Barça make the Champions League semi final, the game would be played on May 6-7. The final is taking place in a neutral venue, in Munich, on May 31. 

In October 2024, FC Barcelona gave a press conference announcing their intentions to return before the end of the calendar year. However, nothing was confirmed that day, and indeed the club left the door open to the possibility of the return being pushed back after the new year. 

 

Half-built stadium in summer 2024

Ahead of the season kickoff, the stadium still looked only half built, with lots of frameworks and initial structures visible from the surrounding streets. 

The third tier of the stands had to be fully demolished and will be constructed again during 2025, to be fully ready by 2026. 

The club say that work is progressing “at a good pace,” but delays in a project of such a grand scale as this are common.

An area of 73,500m3 was demolished in the first year of works, with 425,000m3 excavated and 7,850,000kgs of steel put in place, as well as 54,900m3 of concrete. 

More than 1,200 workers are helping build the new Camp Nou, and they are currently focusing their work on the upper tier's metal structure, the partitions inside the stadium, and first and second tier seating placements. 

The works can be watched live as a nearby resident is live streaming the stadium from his apartment.

A total of €1.5 billion will be invested in the renovation works.

All in all, it's likely that the Camp Nou stadium won't be ready until the 2025/26 season.

The club expects to finish the stadium works completely by August 2026, when it will have a capacity of 105,000 and an underground parking lot with up to 4,000 parking spaces. However, this termination date was given when the club expected to return to a reduced capacity Camp Nou before the end of 2024. 

Officials from the club have yet to give a revised date on when the full capacity new Camp Nou will be open.