Spanish La Liga defending champions and table toppers Barcelona have announced that the Nou Camp will become the first football stadium in Europe to have dedicated 5G coverage.

The initiative will transport fans into the 99,000-seater ground by providing an immersive virtual reality experience. With virtual reality glasses any Barca fan will be able to watch from the directors’ box, behind a goal or even by the dugout. This will be thanks to the placement of 360º cameras around the stadium which can be relayed to any home viewer. The club is working with Telefonica and mobile industry body the GSMA on the ‘5G Stadium Project’.

Barcelona have not provided a timeframe for when the project will be finished, but it is expected to coincide with the new-look stadium as part of the Espai Barca project. The club is undergoing major redevelopment on its historic stadium with plans to modernise and expand the Nou Camp to a 105,000 capacity, which begins later this year.

‘At Barcelona it makes us very proud that the Nou Camp is the first football stadium in Europe with internal 5G coverage’, said club president Josep Maria Bartomeu. The Nou Camp is the largest stadium in Europe. It holds more than 90,000 spectators and when Espai Barca is finished the capacity will rise to 105,000.

‘Thanks to this agreement between Barcelona and GSMA, in partnership with Telefonica, we have made the Nou Camp a laboratory for innovation in the most advanced technology in mobile telephony, 5G’.