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Where will Barcelona play their Champions League home games?

It’s a simple question, but the short answer right now is: we don’t know.

In just two weeks, Barca will host last season’s competition winners Paris-Saint-Germain in one of the standout ties of the league phase. But as things are, the Spanish club have only announced the venue for their next home match on Sunday: the 6,000-capacity stadium by their training ground. Beyond that, nothing has been confirmed.

What’s behind all this? The uncertainty around the severely delayed €1.5billion refurbishment of Barca’s Camp Nou stadium, and the club’s determination to get back there as soon as possible.

However, we do know that the options Barcelona have are limited, that UEFA has certain expectations which venues must meet, and that time is running out for the Catalan club to show they can comply with them.

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What are Barca’s options?

The 6,000-capacity Estadi Johan Cruyff, the 55,000-capacity Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on Montjuic or the Camp Nou, if Barcelona finally succeed in getting the required permits to open the ground at a reduced capacity of about 27,000 while works continue.

Barca have already hosted one match this season at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, where the club’s reserve and women’s teams play. On Sunday night, Hansi Flick’s side beat Valencia 6-0 there. And on Tuesday afternoon, they confirmed their next home game, against fourth-placed Getafe, will be held there this Sunday.

But none of that was part of the plan. Playing at the Estadi Johan Cruyff was an emergency option improvised late in the day. It was only announced five days before the Valencia game, and the venue did not meet La Liga’s rules on stadia, so an exception had to be made. Barca also had to carry out some improvements at the ground to bring it in line with the league’s standards on VAR.

La Liga had already accommodated Barca by allowing them to play their first three matches away from home, allowing them more time to get the Camp Nou ready to partially open.

Then there is the Olympic Stadium on Montjuic. Barca spent two seasons there after work began on the Camp Nou in June 2023, but earlier in the summer, club sources — who, like all those cited in this piece, spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their positions — said there were no plans in place to return for 2025-26.

The ground was not an option for Barca for the Valencia game last week because of a Post Malone concert held there two days before the game.

However, in the build-up to that game, sources at the Barcelona city council department that manages the venue said an arrangement had been reached with Barca to keep it as a backup option for this term. This was then confirmed publicly by Barca vice-president Elena Fort, once the club’s announcement about the Valencia game was made.

There are currently no further concerts planned at the stadium until May. But those same sources at the city council also stressed that it would take time to prepare it to host elite-level football once again, which perhaps suggests it was not considered an option for the Getafe game.

After Getafe, Barcelona are next due to host Real Sociedad in La Liga on Sunday, 28 September. Barca have not confirmed where that match will take place. The statement announcing that the Getafe game would be played at the Estadi Johan Cruyff emphasised the club was “working intensively” towards re-opening the Camp Nou “in the coming days”.

Barca’s original plan was to return to the Camp Nou at a reduced capacity in November 2024. But that was the first of several targets missed, with the refurbishment a long way from being fully finished.

In the summer, the club said they would hold their traditional curtain-raiser, the Joan Gamper Trophy, at the ground on August 10. After that did not happen, because the works required to open the ground were still ongoing, they said the Valencia game, their first home match of the La Liga season, would be hosted there. That did not happen either.

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Which of the options is most likely?

Could Barcelona really get the Camp Nou ready in time for the Real Sociedad game on September 28 and/or the PSG match in the Champions League three days later? Club sources insist that is their intention. City council sources would not comment when asked for their thoughts on the likelihood of that happening.

Barca have still not received the permits it needs from the Barcelona city council to reopen the Camp Nou at a reduced capacity of 27,000. But they have now applied for them, which they had not done before the Valencia match.

If they can get the permits, sources familiar with the situation say they would not have to hold a test event before opening the ground. But an inspection would have to be made by La Liga and UEFA, in addition to that conducted by the local authorities.

What about the option of continuing at the Estadi Johan Cruyff? It currently has approval for La Liga matches, but to hold Champions League games there, it would need to be inspected by UEFA — even though Barcelona Femeni play their Women’s Champions League matches there.

This option is not favoured by Barca. Beyond the financial implications of only being able to sell just under 6,000 tickets for each home match, the stadium is used by several teams and an issue of fixture congestion could develop.

As for Montjuic, there is a potential issue over the venue’s availability on September 28. Barcelona sources say a nearby firework display and festivities held across the city in celebration of La Merce, a local holiday, mean security arrangements cannot be guaranteed. A city council source said they would not comment when asked to confirm this.

The option of playing PSG there does not appear to have any major hurdles stopping it. But the ground would also have to be inspected by La Liga and UEFA.

Barca requested to play their first Champions League fixture of the league phase away from home, and they start at Newcastle tomorrow evening. But very soon they will have to decide where home is, and, in theory, that decision commits them to a venue for the entire season.

UEFA Champions League regulation 25.08 states that clubs must “in principle” play all their games in the same stadium. This allows UEFA wiggle-room, but any changes would most likely come between the league phase and knockouts beginning in February 2026.

When asked about the possibility of playing at Montjuic, Barca sources repeated that they want to get back to the Camp Nou as quickly as possible, but accepted that the most likely scenario would see them hosting the PSG game at the Estadi Olimpic.

How damaging is this for Barca?

It is possible to imagine all this uncertainty and drama being avoided at another club.

A call could have been taken in the summer to wait another six months before returning to the Camp Nou, allowing more time to proceed with work at the stadium, and more certainty for all involved in planning and preparation. In mid-August, Barcelona’s deputy mayor, Albert Batlle, publicly called for exactly that.

Such calm and considered decision-making is not often seen these days at Barcelona. Joan Laporta’s presidency has been characterised by improvisation and short-term calls, which often just kick problems further down the road. The biggest example is the ‘levers’ policy, which has raised short-term money for transfers, but has yet to resolve the long-term financial issues he and his team inherited.

Laporta has repeatedly said that returning to the Camp Nou, which will have a capacity of 105,000 when finished, as soon as possible is crucial to boosting their troubled finances.

Back in 2023, the club estimated that playing one season at Montjuic would cost them about €90million in lost matchday and related revenues. They have so far played two seasons away from their home, but €180m would perhaps be a conservative estimate given the at times disappointing attendances at their temporary home.

Why has the Camp Nou rebuild been so badly delayed?

When Barca partnered with Turkish builders Limak in January 2023, Laporta said they were the only bidding company that committed to the team being able to return (at two-thirds of capacity) for Barca’s 125th anniversary in November 2024, as well as to completing the project in full before June 2026.

That projected timeline quickly began to look very ambitious. Limak’s only previous sports stadium was the 25,000-seater Mersin Arena in southern Turkey.

Hurdles have included problems obtaining required permits from the city council, complaints from residents about noise and light pollution, reports of workers’ rights not being respected by local authorities, and suppliers going bankrupt. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine affected the cost and availability of materials.

Culers, acompañadnos al Spotify Camp Nou! 🏟️👀 pic.twitter.com/XFIFcrRdOl

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) August 13, 2025

In July 2024, Barca vice-president Fort said the Camp Nou would be “ready for play by the end of the year”. In September, two months from the intended return date, Laporta said the club “didn’t want to set dates” because “it might happen later or it might even happen earlier”. An October club statement said the team was expected to return to the Camp Nou “in the second half” of the 2024-2025 campaign. Fort told RAC1 in January 2025: “We will return before the end of this season.”

That also proved impossible, and Barca had to apply to the local authorities to allow them to finish the 2024-25 campaign at the Lluis Companys.

At the start of this summer, Barca targeted the Joan Gamper Trophy on August 10 as their first game back at the Camp Nou. However, the club did not even get to the stage of formally applying to the city council for the required permits.

Back in early August, Barca sources said the club was still not considering a Plan B. The club hierarchy remained confident they could play all this season’s competitive games at the Camp Nou, albeit beginning with a reduced capacity of around 27,000, but that target has also been missed.

Additional reporting: Laia Cervelló Herrero

 (Top photo: David Ramos/Getty Images)