FC Barcelona Board Join Camp Nou Cultural Identity Loss Twitter Row

The sister of FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta – board member and VP of the Institutional Area Elena Fort – has spoken out against a popular tweet thread on Friday which argued that Camp Nou will lose its cultural and architectural identity through being renovated.

Barca will play next season at the Montjuic Stadium while Camp Nou undergoes a overhaul worth more than $400 million.

The new ground is expected to be ready by late 2024 to coincide with the club’s 125th anniversary, but a Twitter user with 1.4 million followers, The Cultural Tutor, is among the disgruntled that believe it will look “like every other stadium in the world” upon delivery by Limak Construction.

“Money can buy most things, but not history, identity, or culture. These only emerge over time, very slowly, and they are fragile,” the account wrote, further offering that “ultimately, the trouble is that we can always make new things with ease, but that which is old and rich in history can only be destroyed once, and can never be brought back”.

“One of football’s great stadiums, gone forever, and future generations denied to the chance to know it,” it lamented.

The comments section was full of journalists and Barca fans familiar with Camp Nou, who objected that while it was once one of the leading stadiums in the world, it was of its time and in need of a facelift.

Many also quote tweeted the thread to offer more elaborate thoughts, and one of those was Fort who criticized the post for making the mistake “of not knowing a project that precisely preserves the architectural values of an old stadium while it is necessary and essential to reform it”.

Fort claimed the renovation project is one “that differs from all others” and offers an “open façade to the city” of Barcelona.

“A façade that generates a unique social and Mediterranean synergy. A democratic stadium. For everyone. [A] Pioneer in sustainability,” she added.

“And yes. We change to improve and move forward.”

As part of top brass, and with her brother spearheading the project, it is natural that Fort will rush to the renovation’s defenses.

However she is not the only one that backs the revamp and believes it was well overdue.

While people spit feathers over whether Barca have gone from being “more than a club” to “one more club” as one onlooker protested, it is only when the new building is ready that we can truly judge its qualities and shortcomings.