‘Hear the goals during the afterlife’: Barça fans get to inter ashes at club’s new memorial

Lifelong supporters of Barcelona football club will soon be able to cheer on the club from beyond the grave – but, like everything else at Barça, eternal devotion comes at a price.

As part of an upgrade to the Camp Nou, the club has inaugurated the Memorial FC Barcelona, consisting of 26,000 niches where fans can deposit their ashes after their own final whistle has blown.

Supporting the team from the afterlife will cost €2,490 (£2,082) for 10 years or €6,000 for 50 years, with an annual maintenance fee of €70. Guaranteeing your niche for eternity will set you back €10,000, with a further €490 for a memorial plaque.

Presenting the Memorial FC Barcelona, María Elena Fort, the club’s institutional vice-president, said: “When my grandfather died many years ago, he said the only thing he wanted was to be buried next to Barça’s pitch so that he could hear the goals go in during the afterlife. Many fans dream of the same thing.”

The memorial, designed by the architect Quique Montoya, will consist of four large illuminated squares, while the memorial plaques will be installed in a glass wall backlit with LED lights. The urns will be kept behind a mural commemorating key moments in the club’s 125-year history.

The rival Spanish clubs Atlético Madrid, Betis and Espanyol already have smaller columbariums in their stadiums.

Work on Barcelona’s will begin late next year and the club says more than 1,000 Barça fans have already booked their place. Their contributions will go towards paying the huge cost of redeveloping the stadium, which was built in 1957.

In 2023, the club embarked on a scheme to increase capacity from 99,354 to 105,000 – 15,000 more than Wembley Stadium and making it the second biggest football venue in the world, after the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang in North Korea.

The cost of the changes, initially costed at €900m, is now approaching €2bn, now being borne by non-season ticket holders who have seen ticket prices double in recent years.

The work, being carried out by the Turkish firm Limak Construction, has been plagued by delays and labour disputes. In 2024, FC Barcelona recognised that, among other abuses, more than 1,000 subcontractors had not been paid for overtime.

Work is due to be completed later this year but the club will have to play part of next season at the Olympic Stadium (capacity 55,926) while a roof is installed on Camp Nou.