Barcelona will not play at Camp Nou next season after plans were approved to redevelop the iconic stadium and its surrounding facilities.

The Barcelona board approved the financial plan to proceed with the Espai Barca project on Thursday night.

Barcelona will receive up to €1.5billion (£1.3bn, $1.6bn) to fund the Camp Nou renovations, with US investment firms Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan expected to be the club’s main partners on the project. The final agreement with the two financial heavyweights could be finalised and announced within the next 24 hours.

Barcelona informed the City Council and UEFA on Thursday that they are going to play in Estadi Lluis Companys next season, the first time that Camp Nou will not be their home ground since 1957.

The Estadi Lluis Companys is a 55,000-seater stadium located on Montjuic, a large hill to the southwest of the city of Barcelona and was previously the centrepiece of the 1992 Olympics.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta announced last year that the club would spend the 2023-24 season away from Camp Nou due to the planned redevelopment, but at that stage the financing of the Espai Barca project was yet to be fully financed.

Club sources admit recent noise on the Negreira scandal and Gavi’s registration process, combined with a general raise of interest rates, have made things more difficult.

In March 2022, Barcelona reached a “long-term” sponsorship agreement with streaming giant Spotify to rename their stadium to the ‘Spotify Camp Nou’.

(Photo: Getty Images)