The drama never stops at Barcelona. The Catalonian club is about a month away from choosing a new president to lead the proceedings. Whoever manages to take the reigns will have to find a way to not only restore stability on the field but also off it.
According to Sport, Presidential candidate Xavi Vilajoana wants the club to play all of their home matches for a period of two years at arch-rivals, Espanyol’s old home ground.
“The remodelling of what is our home [Camp Nou] is one of the great priorities of my electoral program,” he said.
“The Espai Barça project is fundamental for the present and the future of the club. We need a new, modern stadium that allows us to offer a better service to our members and have a greater source of income.”
“I don’t like to talk about Real Madrid, but they will have their new Bernabeu in a short time and we cannot take seven years to see the Camp Nou remodelled, because we will lose competitiveness with our rivals.”
“It would be the best formula to have the remodelling as soon as possible since doing the works while the first team plays at the Camp Nou would be a nuisance for the members.”
Barcelona’s Espai Camp Nou project was started under Josep Maria Bartomeu and was projected to cost the club around $600-700 million. Owing to the current pandemic situation and the lack of funds generated, that cost has shot up to more than double at $1.5 billion.
The club’s finances are the other major talking point in terms of problems for the future president. Up until very recently, there were talks of Barcelona becoming bankrupt.
However, they managed to avoid the situation reducing their wage bill by about £170 million by agreeing to wage reductions with their players.
