For the best part of 65 years, FC Barcelona has been playing their home games at the famed Camp Nou, a stadium that is as iconic as any other in European soccer, but for the 2023-24 season, the La Liga side will be playing away from their spiritual home as it receives a much-needed makeover.
The Catalan side, who won their first domestic title in four seasons in 2022-23, will have to hope that playing away from their famed home venue won’t impact negatively on their recent return to form, and it certainly will be a very odd sensation for players and fans alike, as they perform at the nearby Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium until building work on the Camp Nou is complete.
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Having drawn their opening La Liga fixture away at Madrid-based side Getafe, Xavi’s side took the field for their first competitive game at their new temporary home on Aug. 20 against Cadiz and won 2-0.
Camp Nou was a notoriously tricky place for visiting sides to go, the imposing stadium held 90,000-plus screaming Culers, and that, coupled with Barcelona’s top-class assortment of stars, would usually be more than enough to cripple the opposition. Will their new home do likewise?
In 19 La Liga home games in 2022-23, FC Barcelona lost just once, and even that defeat came with a number of caveats. Xavi’s side's surprise loss to Real Sociedad on May 20 came when they had already clinched the title and was against a team that had a lot to play for.
On the prospect of what sort of stadium the club returns to, club president Joan Laporta is very excited indeed.
"Now we have to go through a process, the construction process, and we must be excited about that," he said When we come back here, we will be stronger than ever. It will coincide with our club’s 125th anniversary, at the end of 2024, when the stadium will be ready for us to get what we want from it."
"Since the opening of Spotify Camp Nou in 1957, it has been our home and a source of pride for all Barça fans, and we want it to stay that way. The new Spotify Camp Nou will become a reality, a collective dream for all Barça fans, and at the same time, it will be a legacy for our children and grandchildren," Laporta added.
Their temporary home is also something of an esteemed location in the city, with the Olympic Stadium having been used during the 1992 Olympic Games and was previously the home of local rivals RCF Espanyol (between 1997 and 2009).
It has a capacity of 54,367, so much smaller than Camp Nou, which can hold 99,000, but will no doubt be an imposing cauldron for all those sides that come to visit this season.
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