CAMP NOU

Description

Essentials about Camp Nou in brief

A visit to the “soccer temple” Camp Nou (New Field) is of course on top of the bucket list for football fans when visiting Barcelona. With its almost 100,000 seats, the home stadium of FC Barcelona is not only the largest soccer stadium in Europe, but also the largest club stadium in the world. Moreover, Camp Nou is much more than just a soccer stadium. Soccer is not just a game in Barcelona. The identity of Barcelona and all of Catalonia is closely intertwined with FC Barcelona. It is not for nothing that the club motto “més que un club” (“more than a club”) is written in huge letters on a spectator stand in the stadium.

The history of Camp Nou

In the 1950s, the old stadium Les Corts, with its 60,000 seats, became too small for FC Barcelona’s requirements. After a three-year construction phase, the new Camp Nou stadium was opened in 1957. In 1980, on the occasion of the World Cup, which was held in Spain in 1982, the stadium was once again extended by an upper tier and at that time had a capacity of 119,000 spectators. Due to UEFA security regulations, the capacity of the stadium had to shrink again to the current number of seats. On special (religious) occasions, such as papal masses or U2 concerts, Camp Nou is also used for non-sporting purposes.

Since the Camp Nou is now a bit outdated, the stadium is to be expanded and modernized according to plans by the British star architect Sir Norman Foster. Among other things, the spectator capacity is to be increased to 105,000 and the stadium is to be roofed over. The renovation work is to be completed by the 2025/26 season.

Visiting Camp Nou

If you don’t manage to get a ticket for a game of the legendary FC Barcelona, you can still visit the Camp Nou. As part of the guided “Camp Nou Experience” stadium tour, you can see all kinds of different areas of the stadium, including a panoramic view of the stands from the press box, a visit to the visiting team’s dressing room, a prayer in the stadium’s own chapel (as some players do before kickoff), a visit to the press room and the mixed zone, where coaches and players make their statements, and, of course, a walk through the players’ tunnel to Barcelona’s hallowed turf in the footsteps of soccer legends such as Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Luís Figo, Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. In addition, you get to watch documentaries about FC Barcelona in the Multi Media Zone and see the exciting history of the club in the museum (including the many trophies the club has collected over the years).