Barça president confirms Camp Nou return for Gamper Trophy game pilot test

FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta said the club will return to the revamped Spotify Camp Nou to play the Gamper Trophy game on either August 8 or 9. 

The match will serve as a pilot test before the new stadium can officially host competitive games once more. 

As such, it's expected that Barça will ask La Liga to play their first games of the 2025/26 campaign all away from home, as it's unlikely the stadium will be ready to host competitive encounters until late September or October.

"If all goes well, we will do a pilot test, an important test, at the Gamper. We plan to do it on August 9 or 10 at the Spotify Camp Nou," Laporta said in the television interview. "We are working with this hypothesis, which will surely turn out okay since everything is aimed at doing an important test before an official league match. The Gamper is the best way to test how the stadium will be, the accesses, the conditions," he added.

The Barça president confirmed that Sunday's 2-3 defeat to Villarreal would be the Catalan club's last home game in Montjuïc. The club's lease at the ground runs out today, on Tuesday, and the blaugrana have just one more match to play this season, away to Athletic Club. 

The club's iconic Camp Nou stadium has been a construction site ever since summer 2023, after the club last played a game there.

FC Barcelona already wrapped up the La Liga title this year, beating local rivals Espanyol 0-2 last Thursday night. 

On Friday evening, 670,000 fans took to the streets to celebrate with the team as the players paraded their domestic treble of the La Liga, Copa del Rey, and Spanish Super Cup trophies in an open-top bus route through the city centre.