By Barcelona announced on Tuesday that they would not be playing their first home game of the season at Camp Nou, just five days before their clash with Valencia on Sunday evening, They will instead face Los Che at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, located at their training ground, where Barcelona Femeni and Barca Atletic regularly play their matches.
The announcement has not gone down particularly well with Valencia fans, who will not gain entry due to the low capacity, and Barcelona prioritising club members. Even if it is full, it will see one of the lowest ever attendances recorded in La Liga.
Previous record holders
Prior to this weekend, the two smallest grounds to host games in La Liga at Eibar and Huesca. The Basque side, who were in La Liga for a seven-year stint, held games at Ipurua, with a capacity of just 6,267. Meanwhile to the East in Aragon, Huesca’s El Alcoraz in theory held just 5,000 fans, but they increased their capacity to 8,000 for their time in La Liga.
Camp Nou
During Real Madrid’s renovation work on the Santiago Bernabeu, they hosted games at the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano, which has a capacity of only 5,700, but those games were behind closed doors. Outside of Barcelona holding games at the Johan Cruyff, Getafe have the lowest capacity, with only 11,000 fans allowed into the Coliseum, as they carry out work on their stadium too.
Barcelona could hold record for highest and lowest attendances as Barcelona currently hold the attendance record, having hosted 125,000 fans at Camp Nou before seated stands became obligatory. The concern for Barcelona will be that Institutional Vice-President, Elena Fort has declared that there is little certainty on when they will return to Camp Nou, with it looking likely that a return will not take place until October. Barcelona had initially planned, in the most recent announced date, to be back in early August.
