Barcelona are going to leave the Camp Nou again.

This was already part of their plans to finish ongoing rebuilding works at their iconic ground, but now we know — following comments from vice-president Ferran Olive at Saturday’s annual general assembly — exactly what they expect to happen next.

Olive said Barca would finish this 2026-27 season at the Camp Nou, but would then have to play away from the stadium for around half of 2027-28. He said the club hoped to come back in January 2028.

At that meeting, Barcelona also requested club members approve another big loan — taking on €510million (£437m; $584m) in further debt, €300m being earmarked for Camp Nou construction and €210m in further operational borrowings — in order to complete the works. This was voted through, meaning Barcelona’s total debts are now set to surge well past €2billion and could hit €2.6bn in total, depending on repayment dates.

It takes the budget for the Espai Barca project, which encompasses the Camp Nou rebuild, to €1.8billion, or triple what the works were costed at when it was first pitched in 2014. And even that sum won’t cover the full project; president Joan Laporta told club members on Saturday the extra €300m earmarked for the Camp Nou will not cover the building of the Palau Blaugrana, a venue which will house the club’s non-football teams.

But to fit the roof and finish the stadium completely, the team will need to leave. Design plans mean the roof has to be built from inside the stadium, requiring building materials to be stationed where the Camp Nou pitch is.

Olive also said: “When we get back to the Camp Nou in January 2008, we expect to have a 95,000 seating capacity which will give us again this full potential to get the financial side of the club working at its best.”

From this, it sounds like the ground will still not quite be fully finished when Barca do go back. The total capacity of the new Camp Nou is planned to reach 105,000, up from the previous official total of 99,354. That was already the largest of any European football venue.

Now Barcelona expect to have the stadium finished and at full capacity by the start of the 2028-2029 season. Last week, UEFA announced it has chosen the Camp Nou as the 2029 Champions League final venue, set for June 2 that year.

Add that €1.8billion in maximum Espai Barca funding to the operational debt and the club’s overall borrowings could top €2.6bn. And that doesn’t include the 25 per cent of La Liga TV revenues sold off to Sixth Street, a private equity firm, in 2022, nor how the Palau Blaugrana arena, the new home of Barca’s non-football teams, will now be funded. When the Espai budget was last revised, in 2021, the cost of Palau Blaugrana and its surroundings was mooted at €420m.

The situation became even more complicated in early October when Barca’s auditors wrote down a previous €400million valuation of the Barcelona Vision subsidiary (the latest version of the Barca Studios project). That meant a €12m profit in ‘ordinary’ trading in the 2023-24 accounts became a net loss of €91m. La Liga reacted by further lowering Barcelona’s salary limit — meaning even more new money was required to register Olmo and Victor past December 31.

That date still seemed far away as the team performed superbly under new coach Hansi Flick, hammering Bayern Munich in the Champions League and arch-rivals Madrid in La Liga during one joyful week in late October. It appeared much closer though when the new Nike deal, announced in mid-November, did not add enough money to the 2024-25 accounts to register Olmo and Victor for the second half of the season.

That led to more improvisation to try to find the funds required. In recent months, Laporta has visited Qatar, Dubai, Mongolia and Azerbaijan.

Another lever was landed upon: selling future revenues from the VIP zones in the club’s under-refurbishment Camp Nou stadium at a discounted rate. This was classic Laporta: selling seats which do not yet exist in a stadium where his team cannot currently play because it’s still a building site to investors whose identities were not revealed for a price that was also unclear.

It was now clear that La Liga was no longer prepared to accept Barcelona’s word about their finances and needed to see written contracts and financial statements. Unlike with Barca Studios in 2022, it refused to accept the promise that the money would arrive. Barca reacted with an (unsuccessful) court challenge to La Liga’s registration rules, further damaging their relationship with the governing body.

So as the year turned, Olmo and Victor were duly removed from the official list of Barcelona players on La Liga’s website. Rules say a player cannot be registered twice for the same club in one season.

Samir wrote: ↑27 Aug 2020, 08:58 Mane visoje šitoje situacijoje labiausiai trikdo faktas, kad 2020 Viešpaties metais kažkas dar naudojasi faksu.

enjoy wrote: ↑25 Aug 2020, 21:43

T-Wolves wrote: ↑25 Aug 2020, 21:37 Wat
Kaltas Messi, kad board'as į tokią padėtį klubą nuvairavo ? Tempė tą šūdų malūną ant savo pečių jau kiek metų. Mato, kad niekas čia nesikeis, o pačiam jau 33. Absoliučiai jį suprantu.

Tai pasikeis ta valdžia, o klubas ir sirgaliai liks. Aš nesakau, kad turi jis čia likt, jei nenori, bet kokį 100 mln. nuo City, United ar kokio PSG galima padėt klubui gaut. Už tuos pinigus ir koks Sancho išeitų. O dabar trenkia durim ir pasikarkit. :whistle

enjoy wrote: ↑25 Aug 2020, 21:30 Mano suvokimu tai komandos simbolis galėtų ir nebėgt iš tokioj situacijoje esančios komandos. Bent jau nedėtų pareiškimo už dyką išeit taip visiškoj subinėj juos palikdamas. Kaip įžeista princesė elgiasi

Zebediejus wrote: ↑13 Jan 2020, 16:31Tai tik mano zebediejiškas noras, bo Xavi dar per anksti, o daugiau tinkamų trenerių horizonte nesimato