FC BARCELONA
Barcelona fined by council for Camp Nou stadium renovation: when will it be completed?
The Club will pay a fine for twice breaking the rules regarding working hours on the stadium redevelopment project.
Barcelona city council have fined the club of the city twice for not complying with the schedules regarding the redevelopment of Spotify Camp Nou. The fines, two separate €300 punishments, come at a time of strict financial belt-tightening for the club, who got their Champions League campaign off to a flying start on the same day.
Council sources have explained that “on Thursday last week, between midnight and 1:00 a.m., an inspection on the work was carried out and activity was detected that was not authorised; the same happened again in August, when builders were recorded at work outside of their pre-planned timetable, meaning that the Urban Police had no other choice but to issue the fines.
Barcelona fined twice for breaking curfew rules
According to information given by the town council, led by mayor Jaume Collboni, the permitted time for workers to be on site is from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. with machinery, and one hour later is there is no machinery involved. This is the case unless there is certain, time-specific work that needs to be carried out, something which must be expressly authorised beforehand. This had already been done before: for example, work had started on previous occasions at 7:00 a.m.
“The council is working alongside FC Barcelona in order to resolve these breaches and over the next few days a meeting will be held with local residents to clarify the situation and explain whatever may be necessary”, the local authority explained.
Neighbours not happy with ‘horrible’ project
The President of the Local Camp Nou Residents’ Association Ana Ramón, spoke to radio station SER Catalunya, in which she explained the situation: “It’s been a really bad summer here in the neighbourhood. We’ve had to close the windows because of the noise, the dust and everything that has come with this horrible redevelopment.”
“It’s calmed a little”, she admitted before explaining that “[we] want calmness, we want to be able to open the windows and have fresh air. You have to close everything, especially those who live on Travessera, in front of the stadium.”
When will the Camp Nou be finished?
The work on Spotify Camp Nou started this summer with the demolition of the old stadium and it is expected that the new one will be ready to host a game in November of 2024. However, the full redevelopment will not finish until 2025. For now, the Catalan club are playing their games, both in LaLiga and the Champions League, at the Estadio Olímpico Lluís Companys, which is also known as Montjuïc, after the location.
