Barcelona’s iconic stadium Camp Nou is nearly unrecognizable at the moment. Since 1 June, construction workers are working 11 hours per day, six days per week, to demolish large chunks of the old ground and prepare it for a long-overdue makeover.Club president Joan Laporta is facing another year of stressful living, in which he’ll try to sell players the club doesn’t need, so Financial Fair Play rules and La Liga allows them to register new signings and contract extensions. The time is working against the Blaugrana club as expenses continue to mount. Laporta must do his magic before 1 September to avoid having an army of angry fans questioning him.Barcelona are confident of being able to register all of their new signings ahead of the new LaLiga season. (Sport)It is despite reports that they are €60m away from being able to register Ilkay Gundogan and Inigo Martinez. pic.twitter.com/qWBbND80GN— Football España (@footballespana_) July 18, 2023 At the minute, new players Ilkay Gundogan, Inigo Martinez and Oriol Romeu are not registered, nor have been contract extensions from Ronald Araujo, Marcos Alonso and Sergi Roberto. If La Liga were to kick off today, Xavi wouldn’t be allowed to field Gundogan, Martinez or Romeu.According to El Partizado de Cope, Barcelona should make financial efforts on such a scale that even selling players like Ansu Fati or Franck Kessie would not compensate for the deficit. The club must, in one way or another, facilitate the departures of players and save on salaries. While financial problems are pressuring the club – it has embarked on a mammoth construction project.##NAJAVA_MECA_7377801##There are currently 400 men working at Camp Nou, but that number will reach 1,000 at the peak of work. The pitch where many football greats showed their skills no longer exists. There are stones and rubble in place of the green surface, while the third tier of the stands is practically non-existent. The works are currently focused on demolition, which will last until November.The entrance to the Grandstand looks strange, with the large hole that has been dug where the parking lot used to be. New VIP places will be located on that site. Modernity and tradition will shake hands in the new Barca home. In fact, the work will make it possible to recover the original architectural heritage, which was covered up in the 1980s with the construction of the third tier. Now it will become a decorative element. There are already areas where you can see the old Camp Nou.
The third tier will be raised 10 metres from the original structure, and that will allow it to be seen from the inside. In addition, the work includes improving the visibility of some of the seats in the stadium’s lowest area. The idea is to make the action on the pitch equally visible from all locations. The pitch will stay in the same place, it will not be lowered any further.Their schedule is clear. In November 2024, football will return to Camp Nou. It will then do so with a finished stadium from the second tier down – between 65,000 and 70,000 localities. The VIP ring will be about 8 meters long, and the third tier will take shape during the 2024/25 season. The idea is to complete that course with 90% of the remodelling. All work should be finished by June 2026.
The Catalan club wanted to highlight the sustainability of the project. Everything is recycled: seats, concrete… there will even be a heat reuse system. There will be no heating in the new Camp Nou because it is considered that the temperatures in Barcelona are not extreme.