Barcelona have unveiled plans to redevelop their Camp Nou stadium.
The club have hired Sir Norman Foster – the man who designed the new Wembley – to draw up the latest plans for the reworking of Camp Nou.
The whole scheme will cost an estimated £210million and to help pay for the building work, Barca will sell off their Mini Estadi, the current reserve team stadium.
“If Barca is more than a club, then Sir Norman Foster is more than an architect,” said Barcelona president Joan Laporta.
“The Camp Nou will be an architectural world reference point. The new design respects the original and ties in with Catalan tradition and from a football point of view it’ll be a pressure cooker for visitors.”
Foster said: “It’s a personal project. I have based this on three inspirations: football, the city of Barcelona and Catalunya, and Barça.
“The stadium will have ten extra levels, using a cable structure which will protect spectators from the wind and rain but it will be flexible to allow sunlight on to the pitch.”
The most outstanding characteristic of the newly-unveiled design is the dramatic exterior – which consists of blue, yellow and red panels which represent the colours of the club and the Catalan region.
The building work which will start in 2009 and take three years to complete, will expand the capacity to 104,000 – confirming its position as the biggest stadium in Europe.
