Mixed zone

This is the space where the players speak to the media after matches at the Camp Nou

The Camp Nou’s mixed zone is 170 metres squaredand is located alongside the pressroom and first team changing rooms. It is a well-lit area divided into two zones – the area where the players walk by and the area occupied by members of the media.

This space has enough room for 100 reporters to gather and is equipped with wireless technology (WiFi) restricted to the accredited media and also has three monitors where reporters can watch the press conferences going on in the room next door at the same time.

The mixed zone is exceptionally spacious, functional and comfortable to work in, meaning that the members of the media are able to do their work in the very finest conditions.

Press room

Feel Barça like never before

Take photos of where the managers and players give their press conferences.

CAMP NOU MUSEUM

Get to know the Museum and the history and values that make Barca “more than a club”

Triumphs
Display case containing the trophies and an interactive screen featuring members, key players from the past, the foundation etc.

History
The “History of Barca” is a giant touch screen that allows you to learn about all the details of the Club’s history and the titles won.

Values
Four spaces dedicated to the key values of “more than a club”: Catalan identity, universality and social and democratic commitment.

Database
An 8.5 metre touch screen with information and statistics about the presidents, managers, members, supporters’ clubs, Foundation etc.

6 cups
The six cups won in an unrepeatable season, on display.

Temporary exhibitions
Photographic exhibition about the FC Barcelona Foundation.

Evolution and major events

When it was inaugurated, the Camp Nou had the capacity for 93,053 spectators and the pitch measured 107x72 metres

It is now slightly smaller, 105x68 to be precise, in accordance with UEFA stipulations. The main materials used in constructing the stands were concrete and iron.

The stadium has undergone several renovations and improvements since 1957. The most important include the unveiling of the floodlighting system in 1959, as well as the addition of the grandstand electronic scoreboard and the press room. But other than these specific changes, the biggest upheaval was the extension work of 1982, when the stadium was enlarged for the staging of the World Cup opening ceremony. The addition of a third tier raised the capacity by 22,150.

Other improvements have been made since the 1982 extension, such as the remodelling of the lowest tier in 1994, which involved lowering the level of the pitch. Several other projects have led to the stadium being awarded five stars, with such facilities as a Museum, Documentation Centre, Barça TV Studio and the Sports Medicine Centre.
Venue for major events 

Apart from being the stage for all of FC Barcelona’s home matches, the Camp Nou has also witnessed several major international finals, including Cup Winners Cup and Champions League finals, and the football final of the 1992 Olympic Games. But it has not only been used for sports, but also several other major international events, such as concerts given by such singers as Lluís Llach, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Josep Carreras, Julio Iglesias and groups like U2; acts of solidarity such as one for Amnesty International, and the visit of Pope John Paul II on November 7, 1982.
And the Camp Nou has also been used for events that have marked the history of the club itself, such as the 75th anniversary celebrations on November 27, 1974, when the club anthem 'Cant del Barça' was performed for the very first time, and the many events involved in the 1999 centenary celebrations, including the opening ceremony at which Joan Manuel Serrat sung the club anthem, or the final game, in which Barça played the Brazilian national side, and when all of the club’s former players paraded on the Camp Nou turf. 

Camp Nou Experience

The price includes the ticket for the Museum, visit the Camp Nou, and the Multimedia area .

A Five Star Stadium

The Camp Nou has been the FC Barcelona stadium since 24th of September 1957, the date of it's inauguration

It was still not big enough to cope with the surging interest in the team though, especially after the arrival of Hungarian superstar Ladislau Kubala and the new Barça stadium was built to replace it. 

The stadium was designed by architects Francesc Mitjans Miró and Josep Soteras Mauri, with the collaboration of Lorenzo García Barbón, and it was constructed between 1955 and 1957, using mainly concrete and iron. The whole project cost a staggering 288 million pesetas, which meant the club would spend the following years in heavy debt.

Although it was originally going to go under the official name of ‘Estadi del FC Barcelona’, it soon came to be popularly known as the 'Camp Nou' (the ‘new ground’), as opposed to the club’s old home at Les Corts. It was not until the 2000/2001 season that, following a mail vote made by the club membership, that the decision was made to make ‘Camp Nou’ the official name of the stadium. Of the 29,102 votes the club received, a total of 19,861 (68.25%) preferred Camp Nou to Estadi del FC Barcelona. 

The stadium’s maximum height is 48 metres, and it covers a surface area of 55,000 square metres (250 metres long and 220 metres wide). In accordance with UEFA stipulations, the playing area has been downsized to 105 metres x 68 metres.

With a capacity of 99,354, it is now the biggest stadium in Europe. However, the total capacity has varied over the years owing to different modifications. When it was first opened in 1957, it held 93,053 spectators, which would be increased to 120,000 in 1982 on occasion of the FIFA World Cup. However, the introduction of new regulations outlawing standing areas reduced the stadium’s capacity in the late 1990s to just under 99,000. 

In the 1998-99 season, UEFA recognised the services and functionalities of the Camp Nou by awarding it five star status. In the whole of Spain there are only four other stadiums that can claim that, the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, also in Barcelona, the new Cartuja Olympic Stadium in Seville, the Vicente Calderón, home of Atlético Madrid, and the Santiago Bernabeu, also in Madrid.

Of the different facilities on offer inside the stadium, of particular note are a chapel next to the changing rooms, the presidential box, the VIPs lounge, the press rooms, several television studios, the Sports Medicine Centre, the Operative Control Unit (UCO), the veteran players area, the FC Barcelona club museum, the nursery and the offices of all of the many different club departments.

1899 -1909

1899 -1909 Foundation and Survival

Gamper, the founder, conceived a sports club in Barcelona, with assistance from Catalans and foreigners

FC Barcelona, founded in 1899 by a group of young foreigners living in Barcelona, was the result of the increasing popularity of football, and other British sports, across Europe. These origins have conferred upon the Club its intercultural identity, multi-sport focus and its deeply-rooted allegiance to Barcelona and Catalonia.

The foundation of the Club coincided with a time when people were becoming interested in playing sport in Catalonia; this social context and Catalonia’s idiosyncratic culture led to the creation of a new model of modern leisure.

Joan Gamper, the Club’s founder, was the inspiration and driving force behind the Club’s first 25 years. His commitment to FC Barcelona went far beyond his role as player, director and president.

1899. The Club’s Foundation

Hans Gamper (Winterthur, Switzerland, 1877 – Barcelona, 1930) came to Barcelona in 1898 for professional reasons

During his free time, he played football with a group of friends in Bonanova.

In October 1899, Gamper placed an advert in the Los Deportes magazine to find players interested in forming a football team.

On 29 November, Gamper and eleven other men (Otto Kunzle from Switzerland; Walter Wild, John and William Parsons from England; Otto Maier from Germany; and Lluís d’Ossó, Bartomeu Terradas, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol and Josep Llobet from Catalonia) came together to form an association that paid tribute to the city’s name and coat of arms: Futbol Club Barcelona. 

Gamper and Barça’s Founding Values

Gamper was a sports lover – a former athlete, cyclist, football and rugby player – who saw sport as a means of exalting the human spirit

Gamper aimed to create an organisation that was open to everyone, regardless of their origin. He envisaged a club that served as a means of social integration, in which everyone could speak their mind, and he created a democratic society that was freely governed by its members. As a sign of his gratitude to Catalonia, the country that had welcomed him, Gamper imbued FC Barcelona with the essence that has come to define it ever since: its commitment to Catalan identity.

Catalan identity, democracy, multiple sports and universality: today, Gamper’s original values continue to give Barça meaning. 

1899. The First Coat of Arms

At first, the Club shared Barcelona’s coat of arms, as a demonstration of its identification with the city and a desire to be recognised as one and the same

The FC Barcelona stamp at that time featured this coat of arms.

In 1910, the board decided that the Club needed its own coat of arms and organised a competition to find a new design. 

1899. The First Kit

The FC Barcelona shirts have always been blue and claret

At the beginning, half the shirt was blue and the other claret, the sleeves were opposite colours and the shorts were white. One of the many theories explaining the origin of the kit colours — blue and claret — is that Gamper used the same colours as the Basel team, where he had played before coming to Catalonia.

1899-1908. The First Football Grounds

During a period of less than ten years, from 1899 to 1908, FC Barcelona used four different locations for its grounds

Their difficulty in finding permanent grounds was due to economic instability and the lack of large open-air spaces at a time when the city was undergoing urban expansion.

1899-1900 The former cycle track grounds at Bonanova (today, Turó Park) 
1900-1901 The Hotel Casanovas grounds (today, Hospital de Sant Pau)
1901-1905 Carretera d’Horta grounds
1905-1909 Carrer de Muntaner grounds

1902. The Copa Macaya, the First Title 

In 1902, FC Barcelona won the first official title in its history

The Copa Macaya was the precursor to the Catalan Football Championship. It was begun in 1900 by Alfons Macaya, president of Hispania AC, when he announced his intention to organise a competition between Catalan teams.

The cup is an outstanding work of modernist art.