Barça to play at Spotify Camp Nou against Athletic Bilbao this Saturday

FC Barcelona will play its first football match at the Spotify Camp Nou on Saturday, November 22, after the city council granted the license for activity on Monday.

The game against Athletic Bilbao will be the first game at the club's home stadium since May 2023, when the team bid farewell to Camp Nou against Mallorca RCD.

In a statement on Monday, the club confirmed the match against Athletic Bilbao scheduled for Saturday at 4.15pm, "will finally be played at Spotify Camp Nou."

"This decision comes after obtaining the first occupancy license corresponding to Phase 1B, which allows increasing the capacity up to 45,401 spectators. This authorization includes the entire Lateral area and adds to the license already granted for Phase 1A, which covers the Tribune and South Goal," the statement read.

The 1A license allowed a capacity of just 27,000. Because of this, Barça decided not to return to the stadium until it was granted Phase 1B of the license, despite receiving the city council's green light to host matches in October.

The club preferred to continue its tenure at the Olympic Stadium Lluís Companys, with a capacity of 55,000 people.

Barça also announced it is working to return to the North Goal, the 1C phase, with a capacity of 65,000 people.

According to FC Barcelona, presale for members for the match against Athletic Bilbao will be activated today (Monday) at 4pm, while ticket sales will open to the general public on Tuesday at 4pm. VIP ticket sales open today (Monday) for everyone.

The game against Athletic Bilbao will be the first LaLiga match at the stadium. At the moment, Barça does not yet have confirmation whether its UEFA Champions League games will be hosted at Spotify Camp Nou or at the Olympic Stadium.

Despite "all requirements are met." The next Champions League game is scheduled for December 9 against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Barça will face next in LaLiga: Alavés on November 29 and Atlético Madrid on December 2.

Open training session

The announcement comes ten days after Barça held an open training session in front of 22,000 fans on November 7.

The session was used to test the infrastructure, taking advantage of the 1A license the site had at the time. Many of the fans had been waiting for months to be back at "the best stadium in Europe."

Maria Dolors had been going to watch Barça for nearly 60 years, and she told Catalan news that the wait will be worth it. "I’m very excited to come back home after so long, I’m very happy," she added. 

Meanwhile, Mar explained that she woke up "really nervous" for the day ahead. "I’ve never been to the Camp Nou before, I’ve been outside it, but never inside," she explained.

Barça had, however, first announced that they would play games in the Camp Nou once more before the end of 2024, before then announcing last summer that they would play the Gamper pre-season friendly game against Italian side Como FC at the stadium. That match was instead moved to the Johan Cruyff Stadium just days before the event.

After the training session, FC Barcelona's president, Joan Laporta, said that, financially, returning to the home stadium is "very important" for the team, as it will allow them to triple match day revenue, according to the president, when it is fully completed. "In the end it will be 105,000 seats, it's very important for the club." 

Laporta also said that the redeveloped Camp Nou will be a "way to attract sponsors and investors."