New Delhi: Barcelona will finally bring the Champions League back to the Camp Nou next month, making a long-awaited comeback after an ambitious stadium redevelopment project. UEFA has officially given the green light for the venue to host the December 9 clash against Eintracht Frankfurt.

The club confirmed that around 45,000 seats will be available for the game, marking a significant moment considering the team has been away from its iconic home since renovation work began in June 2023. Barca said the decision came after UEFA was satisfied that all required safety and operational standards had been met. For the club and its fans, it’s a return that has been circled on calendars for months.

The excitement around the comeback has been building steadily. Just days earlier, the Blaugrana announced that the La Liga match against Athletic Bilbao would serve as the first official fixture back at the stadium. The game will be hosted with limited seats for around 45,000 fans and is expected to set the tone for what Champions League nights will look and feel like at a partially reopened Camp Nou.

Camp Nou slowly reawakening

The ongoing transformation of the Camp Nou is one of the most ambitious stadium projects in European football. Barcelona are expanding capacity from 99,000 to 105,000 while modernising practically every corner of the venue. The scale of the work meant timeliness have shifted repeatedly, forcing the team into a nomadic existence for more than a year.

They initially hoped to return by November 2024 to match the club’s 125th anniversary celebrations, but construction delays turned that plan into wishful thinking. In the meantime, Barca played their home fixtures at the Olympic Stadium and even had to stage one league match at a 6,000-seat facility at their training ground this September after yet another setback.

The project isn’t just extensive but it’s expensive. They have secured roughly 1.45 billion euros from a group of investors to finance the revamp and that reflects both the ambition and the financial strain the club has been managing.

Though the signs of life have returned, with more than 20,000 people showing up for an open training session earlier this month as fans are eager to see the team back on familiar grass. With UEFA now on board, the next Champions League night at Camp Nou won’t just be another fixture rather it will be a symbol that the new era of the stadium is truly underway.