The new Spotify Camp Nou has delayed its launch again, and the Barça-Valencia match will be played at the Johan Cruyff Stadium.

Barça's long-awaited debut of the new Spotify Camp Nou will have to wait again. Despite the club's confidence that the stadium would be ready to host next weekend's match against Valencia, the match will ultimately be played at the Johan Cruyff Stadium.

Thus, history repeats itself from last August, when the Joan Gamper , initially announced almost with great fanfare as the long-awaited launch of the new Barça coliseum, finally had to be played in the venue that usually hosts matches for both the Barcelona reserve team and the women's first team, and which has a capacity of 6,000 spectators.

The Johan Cruyff Stadium's capacity has sparked a new controversy. In principle, LaLiga's latest general regulations, published in July of last year, require that stadiums have a minimum capacity of 8,000 spectators, and there has already been speculation that the match between Hansi Flick's team and Valencia could be challenged.

However, Barça believes they are covered in such an eventuality, given that this same regulation also includes in the first point of its article XIII, which refers to the capacity of the sports venue, that the Delegate Commission "may, due to demographic, architectural, technical or historical circumstances of the Club/SAD, accept the reduction of said minimum required capacity."

The Barcelona City Council's decision to deny the initial occupancy permit for the new Spotify Camp Nou, which will have a maximum capacity of 27,000 spectators in the initial phase of its opening to the public, was more than considered by the Barcelona club.

For this reason, on Tuesday morning, the remaining tasks of adapting the Johan Cruyff stadium for the installation of the cameras necessary for the proper functioning of both the goal-line technology and the VAR were being finalized. These requirements, in this case, would not be subject to any exceptions.

Despite everything, Barça insists in its statement regarding the final venue for the match against Valencia that it is confident that the opening of its new home can take place "in the coming days." However, if that ultimately isn't possible, it would already have its bases covered.

Should further delays occur in the opening of a stadium that will, in fact, remain under construction until October 2026, the Blaugrana team could return to play in the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, whose availability has already been secured until the end of February next year.

And, as RAC1 reported last week, they would also have UEFA's authorization to play some Champions League group stage matches at the same venue and subsequently change stadiums, despite the regulations stating that such a change cannot take effect until the start of the knockout phase.