From the delay of Limak to the reality coup of the City of Collboni

The inadequate advance of the works of Nou Camp Nou has compelled Barça to reculate in his intention to return residence to dispute the Joan Gamper trophy, the final setback in an extended chronology of delays and issues between the membership and the development firm Limak, in control of the mission.

Initially, the directive of Joan Laporta promised to return to the fief culé in November 2024, however the successive issues have been inflicting a cataract of unfulfilled guarantees on new return dates and is about to see if the Culés handle to begin the season of their stadium.

The frenzy transcends the symbolic and impacts the financial and the sports activities. The membership must generate revenue to fulfill the collectors who rescued him after the disaster brought on by the pandemic and to get better his maneuvering potential to the foundations of Truthful Play of the League.

Barça now resigns to attempt to return to Camp Nou with a restricted capability for the league duel towards Valencia scheduled for the weekend of September 13, though the membership has already opened the door to begin the home event in Montjuic if the delays persist.

The issue comes within the European sphere. UEFA stipulates in its laws that each one matches of the Champions League section must be performed in a single stadium that have to be registered earlier than the draw on August 28.

Subsequently, Barça dangers to register the Camp Nou and never having the ability to meet it, or register Montjuic and lose a considerable amount of exploitation revenues of its new stadium to the qualifying section.

VIP Stage

For Blaugranas, the return to Camp Nou is a matter of life or financial dying, and never just for the greater than 200 million exploitation revenues that might imply the soar of Montjuic to the brand new Blaugrana stadium.

With the intention of enhancing his margin of maneuver within the Monetary Truthful Play and to have the ability to signal gamers underneath rule 1: 1 of LaLiga, he offered 475 VIP bins upfront of the longer term stadium for about 100 million euros to 2 corporations within the Center East.

The target was for the League to acknowledge the maneuver as an efficient revenue and its wage restrict to register new gamers.

However, the League and auditors only count this money as real income when the boxes are operational, that is, with the open stadium and available for their buyers.

When the Camp Nou closed and the sparks without finishing, these funds do not compute and Barça still unable to register Joan García (the signing so far). The situation has also truncated the arrivals of Nico Williams and Luis Díaz for the fear of repeating another Olmo case.

Chronology

The Espai Barça project was presented in 2014 under the presidency of Bartomeu. The objective: reform the Camp Nou and turn it into the largest stadium in Europe (104,000 spectators), build a new Palau, and have 40,000 square meters to be sports and commercially exploited.

In 2022, Joan Laporta returns to the Presidency and the City Council of the Civil City grants permits to initiate the works. Then, the controversy came for the award.

The Turkish construction company Limak took the prize ahead of other companies such as FCC or Ferrovial thanks to her promise to finish the work before others thanks to the use of prefabricated components.

The decision generated a lot of controversy among the experts for the lack of experience of the company to a work of such caliber. The objective was to return in November 2024, coinciding with the 125th anniversary of the club.

“We will return with 70% of the capacity, sure. If it does not happen, there will be consequences for Limak, such as A penalty of one million euros per day of delay. However, it will not happen: they work at a very good pace and always comply with the deadlines of their works ”, Laporta said when he announced the agreement.

On June 1, 2023, works begin and problems arise due to limits that the City Council marks in work permits to avoid traffic cuts or noise problems.

The City Council made it clear that it would only allow night work or on weekends in an exceptional way and threatened sanctions, but the club wanted to accelerate the works working 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

The Consistory authorized the work throughout the day on some occasions during the daily days or allowed the work for a few hours of the weekend to try to alleviate the repeated delays, but never fully gave in to the club’s wishes.

In addition, unexpected problems were emerging: suppliers that go bankrupt, delay in the arrival of materials, difficulty finding labor or complaints of operators for abuse, inadmissible layoffs and defaults of subcontractors.

Given the impossibility of returning on the stipulated date (November 2024), the directive avoided pointing to Limak and attributed the delay to causes outside its reach, insisting that you did not have to rush and focus on the great season culé with Montjuic as a home.

The Gamper

After the season, the Joan Gamper trophy (August 10) was the date chosen by Laporta to return with a partial capacity of 60,000 spectators, in an operation announced to hype and saucer. Then, 30,000 fans were reduced.

However, the lack of certainties grew little by little and it was shown that the announcement had not been based on technical or legislative criteria.

The City Council confirmed that the stadium did not meet the requirements to obtain the first occupation license and the club was forced to postpone the return to Camp Nou.

The Consistory emphasizes that municipal ordinances on safety and accessibility must be fulfilled literally and that will not make any exception despite the media or institutional pressure because it is a unique case.

To be able to grant the license, works are finalized, both in the stands and in the accesses. Then, the City Council must send an expert delegation to perform the security tests required to obtain the license with which the stadium could be reopened partially.

The consequences of these delays already feel economic and sports, increasing the discontent between fans and handling the club in the signing market. Currently, the idea of delaying the return to January 2026 begins to gain strength.

Compensation

The original contract between FC Barcelona and the construction company contemplated a penalty of one million euros for each day of delay compared to the first phase (November 2024).

Today, this delay is equivalent to more than 200 million euros potential compensation for the club. However, Barça has decided not to claim this compensation since the cause of delays are considered alien to the control of Limak.

The parts They have preferred to exhibit cordiality in their relationship and Barça has prioritized to end the works as soon as possible instead of a legal confrontation that could paralyze or put the final remodeling phase at risk.