Camp Nou (, 'New Field'), officially Spotify Camp Nou for sponsorship reasons, and often referred to in English as the Nou Camp, is a stadium in Barcelona and the home of La Liga club FC Barcelona since its opening in 1957. It is currently undergoing renovation, and with a planned increased seating capacity of 105,000 it will retain its position as the largest stadium in terms of seating capacity in Spain and Europe, as well as the second largest association football stadium, while becoming the fifth-largest overall stadium in the world.
Camp Nou has hosted two European Cup/Champions League finals in 1989 and 1999, two European Cup Winners' Cup finals, four Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final games, five UEFA Super Cup games, four Copa del Rey finals, two Copa de la Liga finals, and twenty-one Supercopa de España finals. It also hosted five matches in the 1982 FIFA World Cup (including the opening game), half of the four matches at the 1964 European Nations' Cup, and the football tournament's final at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Renovation of the stadium began on 1 June 2023. Barcelona played its home matches at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys during the 2023–24 and 2024–25 seasons, and briefly at both the Olympic Stadium and the Johan Cruyff Stadium during the 2025–26 season. Camp Nou reopened for competitive matches in November 2025 at a reduced capacity. The renovation is expected to be completed ahead of the 2028–29 season.
Construction
The construction of the Camp Nou started on 28 March 1954 as Barcelona's previous stadium, Camp de Les Corts, had no room for expansion. The June 1950 signing of László Kubala, regarded as one of Barcelona's greatest players, provided further impetus to the construction of a larger stadium.
On 14 November 1950, the president Agustí Montal Galobart obtained the favourable agreement of an assembly of members to acquire land for the construction of a new stadium, located in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, which was later exchanged with the City Council of Barcelona for other land in the neighbourhood of Les Corts. The stadium is located at the end of Travessera de les Corts, next to the Cementiri and the Maternitat. The commission dedicated to the project recommended another location in February 1951. The official purchase took place two years later.
The appointment of Francesc Miró-Sans as president of Barcelona, on 14 November 1953, was to relaunch the project. Invested in February of the following year, Miró-Sans decided in favour of the land acquired in 1950, and the first stone of the stadium was laid on 28 March 1954. A procession of several thousands of people made the journey from the Camp de Les Corts to La Masia de Can Planes, where the ceremony of laying the first stone was held, a solemn ceremony in the presence of Miró-Sans, the head of the Civil Government of Barcelona and the archbishop of Barcelona, Gregorio Modrego.
The project was completed one year later, when the club entrusted the construction to the building company Ingar SA. The work was supposed to last eight months, but the costs were more than four times higher than expected, reaching 288 million pesetas. Through mortgages and loans, the club managed to finish the project, borrowing heavily for several years. The club hoped to cover the cost with the sale of the land at Les Corts, but the City Council of Barcelona took five years to requalify it, giving rise to a period of certain economic hardship, Finally, the head of state and of the Spanish government at the time, the dictator Francisco Franco, authorised the requalification of the land at Les Corts. During the course of the Camp Nou construction work, La Masia served as a workshop for making the models and a workplace for architects and builders.
The architects were Francesc Mitjans and Josep Soteras, with the collaboration of Lorenzo García-Barbón.
Finally, on 24 September 1957, the feast of La Mercè, the Camp Nou was inaugurated. A solemn mass presided over by the archbishop, who welcomed the finished stadium, preceded the Hallelujah from Handel's Messiah. Dignitaries of the Franco regime and of the city gathered in the presidential tribune, and some 90,000 people attended the opening ceremony in the stands of the huge stadium. During the event, football clubs from all over Catalonia paraded on the field, as well as members of the different sections of Barça, the penyes and the different Barcelona teams.
Like the Santiago Bernabéu of Real Madrid, the stadium was inspired by De Kuip, home of Feyenoord, which was built in 1937, and featured oval rings around the pitch, resulting in continuous stands without open corners.
Name After members approved a new stadium in 1950, it was widely expected to be named after the club's founder, Joan Gamper, and the name was used informally while the ground was still a project, including by president Francesc Miró-Sans. The Francoist authorities rejected it. Gamper's suicide has often been cited as the reason, though his profile as a foreign-born Catalan nationalist, liberal and Protestant is thought to have weighed more heavily, as it was at odds with the ideology of the Franco regime. General José Moscardó wrote to Miró-Sans telling him to drop the idea, and the name never appeared in an official document.
As a result, the stadium had no official name when it opened in 1957. It was referred to by the purely descriptive "Estadio del Club de Fútbol Barcelona", while supporters used the popular Catalan name Camp Nou ("New Field"), as it replaced Camp de Les Corts. In 1965, president Enric Llaudet put the official name to a members' vote. The descriptive name won with 12,434 votes, ahead of "Estadio Barça" (10,484) and "Estadio Camp Nou" (8,394) and several other names, but Camp Nou remained the name in everyday use.
In November 1973, the club was allowed to use its Catalan name "Futbol Club Barcelona" again, having been forced to use the Spanish "Club de Fútbol Barcelona" since 1941 as part of the regime's suppression of the Catalan language. The stadium's official name was therefore changed to the Catalan "Estadi del Futbol Club Barcelona".
In July 2001, another vote under president Joan Gaspart made "Camp Nou" the official name, with 68.25% in favour and 29.64% against.
In April 2020, the club transferred the stadium's naming rights to its foundation to find a sponsor for the 2020–21 season, with proceeds going to COVID-19 research. However, the plan did not materialise. In 2022, the club sold the naming rights to Spotify in a deal reported to be worth $310 million, running until June 2026, and the stadium became Spotify Camp Nou in July 2022. In October 2025, the club and Spotify extended their sponsorship agreement through 2030, with the naming rights secured until 2034.
History
The stadium's capacity has varied greatly over the years, opening at 106,146, and growing to 121,401 for the 1982 FIFA World Cup. In May 1972, the Camp Nou hosted its first European Cup Winners' Cup final between Rangers and Dynamo Moscow. Rangers won the match with a score of 3–2. Electronic scoreboards were installed in 1975.
The stadium underwent an expansion in 1982, in anticipation of the 1982 FIFA World Cup, which added boxes, VIP lounges, a new press area, new markers and the construction of the third tier, which was smaller in height than the original design by 6 metres (46.60 metres compared to the original design of 52.50 metres). The expansion of the stadium added 22,150 new seats, taking the total seating capacity to 71,731, and the standing capacity was expanded by 16,500 to 49,670, taking the total stadium capacity (seated and standing combined) to 121,401. Barcelona's record attendance was set on 5 March 1986 in the European Cup quarter-final against Juventus in front of 120,000 spectators, just 1,401 shy of the stadium's capacity.
The Camp Nou was one of several stadiums used throughout the 1982 World Cup, hosting the inauguration ceremony on 13 June.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: It also hosted more matches in that tournament than any of the 16 other stadiums used all over Spain, including the opening match, where the traditional opening ceremonies took place (including the releasing of a dove). In front of 95,000, Belgium upset the defending champions Argentina 1–0 in that opening match. It then hosted three round-robin matches between the Soviet Union, Poland and Belgium, which Poland ended up winning and qualifying from to reach the semi-finals, where they played Italy at the Camp Nou, losing 2–0; Italy went on to win the final match, which was played at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid.
The Camp Nou also hosted the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final between Manchester United and Bayern Munich, with both teams in contention to complete league title/domestic cup/European Cup trebles. Bayern led early through Mario Basler's goal in the sixth minute and kept the lead as the clock reached 90 minutes, but United came back to win with injury time goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær.
As well as hosting Barcelona, the Camp Nou is home to the Catalan team. The stadium is frequently used for other football events. The European Cup final between Milan and Steaua București was held on 24 May 1989, with the Italian club winning 4–0. The Camp Nou hosted part of the football competition, including the final, in the 1992 Summer Olympics.1992 Summer Olympics official report. Volume 2. pp. 211–6. In preparation for these matches, two additional tiers of seating were installed over the previous roof-line.
The Camp Nou opened the Barcelona club museum in 1984. The stadium was renovated in 1993–94, in which the pitch was lowered by 2.5 metres (8 feet), the security gap that separated the lawn from the galleries was removed, and standing room was eliminated in favour of individual seating. A new press box, renovation of the presidential grandstand and boxes, new parking under the main grandstand and new lighting and sound systems were completed in time for the 1998–99 season. During 1998–99, UEFA rated the Camp Nou a five-star stadium for its services and functionalities.
The facilities now include a memorabilia shop, mini-pitches for training matches and a chapel for the players. The stadium also houses the second-most visited museum in Catalonia, the Barcelona Museum, which receives more than 1.2 million visitors per year.
On 1 October 2017, Barcelona's league match against Las Palmas was played in an empty Camp Nou due to political turmoil in the region.
On 15 September 2026, the stadium was selected to host the 2029 UEFA Champions League final.
Renovation and expansion Barça 2000 In 1996, during the 19th Congress of the International Union of Architects in Barcelona, an international ideas competition was held to redevelop the area around Camp Nou. Enric Batlle and Joan Roig won the competition, and the club subsequently commissioned them to develop their proposal. In 1997, president Josep Lluís Núñez developed the proposal into the ambitious Barça 2000 project, seeking to generate additional revenue from the club's underused land while creating new public spaces and facilities. A separate company was created to develop the project. In 1998, Núñez and Barcelona mayor Joan Clos agreed to advance the project, with an estimated investment of around 40 million pesetas.
The project faced opposition from residents of Les Corts, who criticised its scale and expected impact on traffic and the neighbourhood. In 1999, 23 architects also called for its withdrawal and the restoration of the original competition proposal. In 2000, Barcelona incorporated the area into a broader urban-planning process, delaying the project. After Núñez left the presidency, Joan Gaspart froze the project and adapted the club’s plans to municipal regulations. The project was ultimately abandoned.
Foster project