Ex-Barcelona Player Weighs In On Camp Nou Delay Chaos

Vilajoana’s played for Barcelona teams between 1991 and 1994.

Getty Images for The Times

The Joan Gamper Trophy is a symbolic, if not vital, match in Barcelona circles.

On Sunday, the goals rained in for the Blaugrana, which outclassed Como 5-0 in the annual friendly. Its goalkeeper, Marc-André ter Stegen, back in the fold after settling an ugly dispute with the club, delivered a customary speech to fans as the reinstated captain before kickoff. As usual, it was a glimpse, a look ahead to what’s coming this campaign.

Of course, the missing piece—still—is the arena where Barça plays. Had its Camp Nou been redeveloped sooner, this would have been the grandest of openings, in front of a 100,000-plus crowd. Ultimately, 6,000 saw Fermín López, Lamine Yamal, and Raphinha score at the reserve team facility several miles west of the construction site.

The stadium uncertainty has continued for some time, with ongoing delays keeping Barça from relocating to its historic ground. According to Catalunya radio station RAC1, the European Club Association found over 200 deficiencies (Catalan) with the rebuild, thus making an expected homecoming against Valencia on September 14 far from certain. During the works, the side has been playing at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, and its first three games of the upcoming La Liga season will be away (Mallorca, Levante, and Rayo Vallecano).

One person having his say on the stadium project is Xavier Vilajoana. Vilajoana is a former youth team striker and director at Barça, previously responsible for the La Masia academy, grassroots soccer, and the women’s team. Today, he’s the CEO of Euroconstruc—a Catalan construction firm focused on large-scale housing development.

Inside Camp Nou’s Demanding Makeover

Over two years since the Camp Nou renovations began in earnest, the first thing to highlight is scale. Vilajoana is well-placed to elaborate.

“Redeveloping Camp Nou is not just any construction project. It’s one of the most complex urban developments in Europe—you’re dealing with a 65-year-old structure, integrating new design with the existing infrastructure, and all while preserving the stadium’s soul,” Vilajoana informed me via a written interview.

“This means coordinating hundreds of suppliers, managing logistics in a dense urban setting, and ensuring safety for tens of thousands of workers and visitors. Every system—structural, electrical, audiovisual, and sustainability measures—has to meet world-class standards.

“In construction, success in a project of this magnitude depends on transparency, sequencing, accountability, and having the right people in every critical role. If any of these fail to meet expectations, the delays and uncertainty we’re seeing now become inevitable.”

Akin to that latter point, Vilajoana is critical of Barcelona’s communications over the stadium’s progress, pointing out its “vague, inconsistent timelines and shifting narratives”. In 2024/25, when Barcelona won the league and Copa del Rey, it had planned a return to Camp Nou mid-season. The move, with all the intricacies to contend with, never materialized.

Big Expenses

When finally alive and kicking, Camp Nou will be a shot in the arm for Barcelona. Yet struggles could cloud the eventual plusses. Barcelona’s economic strain is a never-ending melodrama, its difficulties in signing and registering new players well-known amid the stadium wait.

“The financial management of the club in recent years has been erratic,” adds Vilajoana. Mindful of the financial boosts the revamped stadium will bring—from naming rights, matchday income, and hospitality—he believes Camp Nou won’t save the institution from its economic limitations should the costs and postponements spiral out of control.

“Delays like this erode the return on investment and deepen financial pressure; we need to align the financial, infrastructural, and sporting decisions under a coherent plan. That is not what’s happening today.

“The cost of the renovation alone is an estimated €1.45 billion ($1.68 billion), and this excludes the new Palau Blaugrana (a multisport venue) planned as part of the initial financing. Playing at the Estadi Lluis Companys costs €15-20 million ($17-23 million) a year. There are reports of a potential second round of roof renovations in the next few years, which further exacerbates the financial situation.

“But the financial mismanagement at Barça in recent years goes far beyond the Camp Nou project. In my view, it has been operating with a dangerous dependence on short-term fixes, selling future assets to solve present problems, inflating wage bills without a sustainable plan, and relying on levers that mortgage our future.

“The club’s spending has often disconnected from actual income, which is why we remain constrained by La Liga’s 1:1 financial fair play rule,” he concludes. For clarity, the 1.1 rule stipulates that Barça can only spend as much on players as it earns the other way.

Lamine Yamal And Friends’ Wait Goes On

The situation means Barça supporters will not see Lamine Yamal light up the fabled stadium as soon as they had hoped. Yet there will be a nice sense of déjà vu for the Ballon d’Or hopeful when he finally takes to the field. Yamal has played at Camp Nou once, and it was his debut—a short cameo against Real Betis as a 15-year-old. On his return, he will fancy firing Barça to consecutive titles amid a transitional period at Real Madrid.

It all speaks to the operation Barcelona is nowadays. Smooth and relentless on the field and hectic off it. Only when the squad walks out into its partially open home—whenever that is—will everything at least feel somewhat anchored again from a Blaugrana perspective. It’s not been like that for a while.