FC BARCELONA
Green light for Barcelona for the 2025 Gamper: 1st Objective achieved
The City Council grants the construction license to Barça: Next step "Occupancy License"
The Barcelona City Council has granted FC Barcelona the necessary construction license to play the Joan Gamper Trophy 2025 at the Spotify Camp Nou, although the match is still conditional on obtaining the final first occupancy license, scheduled for August.
The return of the Gamper to the Camp Nou: green lights, but amber traffic light
The Camp Nou is preparing for a reopening that is as symbolic as it is bureaucratically complex. The Barcelona City Council has granted FC Barcelona the long-awaited Activities and Works license that will allow the Joan Gamper Trophy 2025 to be played on August 10 at the Spotify Camp Nou. But before the Blaugrana anthem sounds again in the remodeled temple, there is a legal obstacle to overcome: the first occupancy license.
Yes, the permit that really allows the doors to be opened to the public is not yet in the hands of the club. And as often happens in great administrative feats, everything will be decided in the last minutes of the match.
SPOTIFY CAMP NOU WORKS LIVE
A tight countdown: the final license, pending
The Catalan club has submitted all the required documentation and hopes that the City Council will grant the first occupancy license in the first week of August. However, this decision depends on the completion of a series of essential works, which are scheduled to be completed, hopefully, by the end of July. As if it were an urban planning VAR, the final inspection will determine whether or not the stadium can be opened partially.
The City Council has been clear: there will be no license without all the safety and accessibility requirements being met. Currently, the grandstand is the most advanced area and could be the only one enabled to receive the public, with a drastically reduced capacity compared to the 60,000 spectators initially planned.
Capacity for 60,000? Better between 20,000 and 35,000
The illusion of a half-full Camp Nou has remained just that: an illusion. The City Council has set a provisional maximum of between 25,000 and 35,000 attendees, limiting the use of the stadium to sectors that strictly comply with the technical requirements. In the worst case scenario, only about 20,000 lucky people could attend, all crammed into the stands as if it were the last performance of an unfinished opera.
Without elevators, without catering and with provisional changing rooms, this year's Gamper promises to be more of a transition ceremony than a full-fledged party.
The role of the City Council: referee, judge and notary
What about the delays? The City Council does not deny them, but neither does it assume them as its own. Its role is clear: to ensure that every brick is in its place, every staircase complies with the code and every emergency exit deserves that name. Between plans, signatures and technicians, the Barcelona administration will not give in to football romanticism. Here, urban planning legality rules, not nostalgia.
The Gamper depends on a millimetered calendar. From August 2, after the last hammer blow, municipal inspectors will evaluate the stadium. Only if everything is in order will the license be granted. Everything else —chants, flags, even goals— can wait.
Rival confirmed (unofficially): Fàbregas' Como
As in a football novel with Mediterranean overtones, Barça's rival in this Gamper 2025 will be Como 1907, recently promoted to Serie A and managed by an old acquaintance: Cesc Fàbregas. In the absence of the official announcement, the sources are unanimous: the Italian club will be the special guest in this ritual of returning home.
The choice is not accidental. The good relations between both clubs, recently sealed with the transfer of Álex Valle, and the figure of Fàbregas, add an emotional charge to an event that was already saturated with symbolism.
Between the epic and the file
The Joan Gamper Trophy 2025 will be much more than a pre-season match. It will be a technical test, an administrative victory (if it arrives), and a general rehearsal for the definitive return to the renovated Camp Nou. But above all, it will be a living metaphor of modern football: a dance between emotion and bureaucracy, where goals must wait for their license.
