Barcelona ask UEFA to play UCL opener away from Camp Nou

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Barcelona president Joan Laporta said his club have asked UEFA if the team can play their opening Champions League game away from home with the Spotify Camp Nou still unavailable.

The first round of the Champions League group stage will be played on Sept. 16-18.

Barça have spent the last two seasons playing at the Olympic Stadium in the city while the Camp Nou is being revamped.

"What we have asked UEFA is to allow us to play the first match away from home," Laporta told El Mundo Deportivo. "The draw is on Aug. 28, and we will see what happens then. I hope UEFA allows us to play away. We have an increasingly good relationship with UEFA."

The original plan was to return in November 2024, but that date has been constantly pushed back. Barça had announced it would return to the Camp Nou on Aug. 10 for the Joan Gamper Trophy only to move it to the the Estadi Johan Cruyff due to licensing problems regarding the stadium's reopening.

While Laporta said he cannot give an exact date of when the team will return to play at the Camp Nou, he said it must happen this coming season to comply with their financial commitments.

"We are not considering the possibility of not returning [this coming season]," Laporta said. "All the budgets we have drawn up for next season and all the commitments we have based on the financing contract are based on returning to Spotify Camp Nou.

"We would have to start all over again. We are used to dealing with complicated situations, but we always hope that when the time comes, the waters will be calmer.

"Here, we always have to be alert and attentive to any unforeseen events that may arise, but our logic is that we will be able to return to Spotify Camp Nou as soon as possible and thus fulfill, as we will fulfill, everything budgeted in the financing contract we have with [the club's financial advisors] Goldman [Sachs]."

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Laporta, meanwhile, reiterated his desire to have the club's all-time leading scorer Lionel Messi present at the official opening of the revamped Camp Nou but said he had not spoken to Messi or the player's entourage about this.

Since Messi left Barca as a free agent in August 2021 because of the club's financial crisis, there has been talk of a tribute match to honour the Argentina and Inter Miami captain.

"We always said it at the end of Leo's [Messi's] time at Barça," Laporta said. "The best thing would be to inaugurate the new Spotify Camp Nou with a tribute to Leo Messi. I'm sure his family has been told, it's even been discussed, and it's something we would love to do, but it also depends on Leo and his family. I hope so. It would be very nice."

Barça, who won LaLiga last season, will play their opening three league games -- against Mallorca, Levante and Rayo Vallecano -- away from home.

The Catalan outfit will wait until Sept. 14 to play at home when they take on Valencia.