Why Barcelona vs Tottenham pre-season friendly is not being played at Camp Nou

Latest Tottenham Hotspur news brings an explanation as to why the Joan Gamper Trophy final is not being played at the Camp Nou and instead at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium

Tottenham Hotspur return to action when they play FC Barcelona in the Joan Gamper Trophy final on Tuesday.

Spurs will face Xavi's side in a pre-season exhibition match for a cup named after a founding member, player and president of Barcelona which was established in 1966. It is both sides' final warm-up game before the new season starts, which will see Tottenham head to Brentford on Sunday and Barca travel to Madrid to play Getafe later that day.

Eagle-eyed Spurs fans will notice that the game against Barcelona is not being held at their Camp Nou home, but rather Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys. That is because Camp Nou is currently closed because of renovation works being carried out at Barcelona's ground over the next 18 months.

Barca's work to revamp their home has actually been going on since the World Cup break last year and will see the ground modernised to keep up with current stadia used by the club's European - and domestic - rivals such as Real Madrid. The ground, while steeped in history, is in dire need of development for Barca to maximise matchday revenues.

"The club will start to repay the operation once work has been completed on the stadium, using income generated by Camp Nou, which is forecast to be around €247 million per year," the club said in April. The biggest change to Camp Nou will be a wrap-around and cover on the top of the stadium, replacing the iconic exposed view at present.

While all that is going on, Barca will play at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys for the forseeable - the Olympic Stadium itself renovated for the 1992 games hosted in the city just over three decades ago. The 50,000-seater stadium hosted Espanyol between 1997 and 2009 and is set to cost Barca given the move has effectively cut their capacity in half while the Camp Nou development goes on.

Constructed in 1927, the stadium is not easy to reach by public transport given its location at the top of a hill in the city and supporters have taken up the option to miss a season while the Camp Nou is being done up.