It is official: the Camp Nou 2029 Champions League final is happening. UEFA’s Executive Committee, meeting in the Greek city of Thessaloniki on Tuesday, handed the 2028/29 showpiece to the Spotify Camp Nou, choosing Barcelona’s rebuilt home ahead of Wembley and giving the Espai Barca project the biggest night in club football as its finish line.
For a stadium that spent the best part of three years as a building site, it is a remarkable turn. Mundo Deportivo had reported on 27 August that the Camp Nou was the front-runner, and the Executive Committee duly confirmed it. The Catalan newspaper reports the final is pencilled in for Saturday 2 June 2029.
Camp Nou 2029 Champions League final: why Barcelona beat Wembley
Wembley was the only other bid lodged at UEFA’s Nyon headquarters before the deadline closed on 10 June, and it never really threatened. Barca’s candidacy carried the backing of Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Spanish football federation and the Spanish government — a united front that is unusual in these processes.
The numbers helped too. When the works are finished, the Spotify Camp Nou will hold 104,600 spectators, 9,400 of them in VIP seating, making it the largest stadium in Europe once again. Per Mundo Deportivo, UEFA has been kept closely informed of the construction timeline: the roof goes on in the summer of 2027, with the build complete in the early months of 2028 — a full year of margin before the final.
Barcelona’s hotel capacity and airport access, with Reus and Girona supplementing El Prat, also counted in the bid’s favour after a logistically awkward final in Budapest last May.
UEFA confirmed the rest of its calendar in the same meeting: Munich’s Allianz Arena, the only bid received, takes the 2028 men’s final; the Women’s Champions League finals go to Lyon in 2028 and Cardiff in 2029; and the 2028 Europa League final heads to Bucharest.
Laporta: ‘An immense source of pride’
Joan Laporta, who was in Thessaloniki, framed the decision as validation of the whole rebuild. “It is an immense source of pride for FC Barcelona and for all barcelonistas,” the president told the club’s media.
“This choice is also international recognition of the new Spotify Camp Nou, which is establishing itself as a world-reference stadium, at the forefront in experience, technology, connectivity, accessibility and services,” Laporta added. “UEFA’s confidence in us to host one of the great occasions in world football underlines the scale and the ambition of this project.”
The award is also a marker of how far relations between Barca and UEFA have been repaired since the Super League rupture, with Laporta and Aleksander Ceferin now on notably better terms.
Salvador Illa, President of the Generalitat, called it “great news for Barcelona and for Catalunya, which continues to establish itself as an international reference point in staging major sporting events”. Catalan sports minister Berni Alvarez said hosting the final was “great news for Catalan sport”, crediting joint work between the club, the city council and the RFEF.
A third European Cup final in the Blaugrana’s home
It will be the third European Cup final staged at the Camp Nou, after Arrigo Sacchi’s great Milan side dismantled Steaua Bucharest in 1989 and Manchester United’s stoppage-time comeback against Bayern Munich in 1999. Add the Cup Winners’ Cup finals of 1972 and 1982 — the latter won by Barca — and 2029 will be the sixth one-off continental final the ground has hosted.
The immediate business is less glamorous but just as important. The current permitted capacity stands at 62,652, and Barcelona expect that to rise to between 70,000 and 72,000 in the early months of 2027, according to RAC1. Lighting tests on the exterior panels have been running this week, the senyera picked out in the LEDs.
Between now and then there is a season to win, with Hansi Flick’s side making a run at the best start in the club’s history. But the date is in the diary. Whoever reaches that final, the Blaugrana have already claimed the venue.
