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Saturday, April 5, 2014
New Barcelona Camp Nou project gets go-ahead
A 600 million euro ($827 million) project to renovate
Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium has been given the green light by the
club's members after a referendum on Saturday.
More than 72
percent of the 37,535 votes went in favour of the project, however there
was an extremely low turnout of just 31.65 percent of those eligible to
vote.
"More than two third of the members have voted yes to the
project of a new stadium and I want to thank all the members who have
exercised their right to vote," said the club's president Josep Maria
Bartomeu.
"We have proposed this project thinking about the future and the next generation of Barcelona fans."
The
result is a victory for Barcelona's embattled board, led by Bartomeu,
after a series of scandals that have hit the club over the past few
months.
Sandro Rosell was forced to stand down as president in
January after facing legal action over the controversial signing of
Brazilian star Neymar, which saw the club charged with tax fraud.
And
on Wednesday, Barcelona were handed a ban on signing players for two
transfer windows by FIFA for breaching rules regarding the signing of
players under the age of 18.
However, Bartomeu insisted that his
message that the vote was more important to the future of the club than
his succession of Rosell as president had been successfully received by
the members.
"The project is for the club's future over the next
50 years. This is a club proposal, not one tied to this board. That is
what we have said all along and I think the members have understood
that."
The plans for the new stadium and surrounding areas include
putting a roof on Europe's largest football stadium and increasing its
capacity further from 99,000 to 105,000, as well as building a new
multi-purpose indoor arena, a new stadium for the Barca B team, office
and parking facilities.
Part of the funding for the project will
come from selling a title right that will see a commercial sponsor's
name added to the Camp Nou.
The club insist that supporters will
be able to enjoy a significantly more comfortable matchday experience
than is possible in the nearly 60-year-old stadium.
However, they
also hope a drastic improvement to their hospitality services will
create greater income for the world's second richest club.
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