Barcelona Presidential Candidate Wants To Tear Down The Nou Camp

The Nou Camp could be demolished if Agusti Benedito win the Barcelona presidential election next month, with the candidate wanting to rebuild the ground.

Josep Maria Bartomeu's resignation as Barcelona president in October has kicked off the need for an election ahead of schedule, with the previous incumbent originally leaving at the end of the season.

Candidate Joan Laporta wants to make Hector Bellerin his first signing and has also revealed he wants the club's famous La Masia youth academy's slogan to be 'You'll Never Walk Alone.'

The former president isn't the only one giving away what he'll do if he wins the election and Benedito has explained his plan.

The 56-year-old entrepreneur has promised to knock down the Nou Camp rather than continue with the clubs current plans to upgrade the stadium that was built in 1957.

"If we win the elections, we will build a new stadium," the candidate said at an election presentation.

"We have considered two options. The first is to knock Camp Nou down and build it in the same place. That would mean playing in Montjuic for three years.

The Nou Camp could be torn down. Image: PA Images

"The other option is to build a new stadium in Sant Joan Despi [the site of Barcelona's training ground]. It would be voted on in a referendum during the first year of our mandate if we're elected on January 24.

"If we do it immediately, the project we're putting forward wouldn't cost more than €900 million.

"This would be financed by the sale of the stadium's naming rights for a period of 25 years."

There has been plans to upgrade the current stadium for a number of years now but the most recent plan, that was unveiled in 2018 has been delayed.

Barca could use another stadium for three years. Image: PA Images

The Espai Barca project is supposed to increase the stadium's capacity to 105,000, and has been given the green light, but Covid-19 and the club's current financial issues have delayed improvements.

The new plan could mean the three times European champions playing their games at Espanyol's former stadium for three years.

The stadium was used for the 1992 Olympics and Barca's local rivals used it from 1997-2009, before moving to the RCDE Stadium.

The news means we could see the end of two iconic stadiums in the next few years, with AC Milan and Inter given permission to tear down the San Siro earlier this year.

Topics: Football News, Nou Camp, Barcelona, Spain, La Liga

Ryan Sidle

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