“Due to its maximum dimensions, the new field aborts from the first moment any defensive reinforcement of the visitor if in front there is a forward with mobility and ease of shooting, who knows how to take advantage of the wide gaps that occur in that enormous area that cannot be fully covered by the components of the adversary's back lines, even if they are reinforced numerically”.
On October 6, 1957, just turned 65, the old Camp Nou opened its doors for the first time for an official meeting. It was no longer a festive day like the inauguration, in which it was even agreed that the first goal had to appear in the local locker, but rather a League match, with all the logical demands of the commitment. The first official visitor to the brand new coliseum was Real Jaén, who were competing in the First Division for the third and last season to date.
The analysis of the new scenario went ahead of the tactics and the goals in the chronicles of the following day, as reflected in the outlined paragraph, which corresponds to García Castell in the Monday Sheet It was assumed that the extent of the score, victory Barça by 6 goals to 1, was one more of the virtues that the Camp Nou provided.
This was also highlighted by Carlos Pardo in Mundo Deportivo: “The great teams need free ground, to develop their ideas, to channel their class. On wide pitches, football ceases to become a personal man-to-man fight and rises to the beautiful concept of game style battles”. Pardo also highlighted "the vast meadow created in the center [of the field] for football."
The euphoria of 6-1 over a rival that had kept their goal unbeaten in the previous three days was based on a detail today of little value in today's standardized football: the dimensions of the pitch.
Currently, all the First Division teams except two have pitches that are 105 meters long and the vast majority combined are 68 meters wide. This is the case of the current Camp Nou, the Bernabeu, San Mamés, the RCDE Stadium... Today the slum stratagem of reducing dimensions for convenience is no longer in style: all the scenarios are practically identical.
But in 1957 it didn't work like that. Any field of play was considered valid as long as it complied with the wide margin accepted by FIFA. And the differences were remarkable. Very remarkable. That first Camp Nou was 107 meters long by 72 wide, almost 600 square meters more than the current one! It was erected as the largest in the League and at the opposite pole was precisely the field of Jaén (101x62m). Among the 16 First Division teams at the time, the disparity was absolute. 105x70 the Bernabeu, 103x68 San Mamés, 104x64 Sarrià...
For greater contrast, Barça came from Les Corts, which was one of the smallest First Division fields: 101x63m, more or less like Jaén. The change was spectacular and the football of that star-studded Barcelona experienced a sensational boost.
Jaén moved its board in full to open the new stadium and its president, Cristino Ruedo del Río, announced a special offering: "We will pay homage to the Virgen de la Merced with a typical lamp that has the Jaén coat of arms and the Holy Face, with oil from the first harvest”. He did not prevent the win. And the Camp Nou paved the way for success (and disappointment), which was not easy at first. From the first day they criticized the difficulties of getting to an area so far from the center of Barcelona, the poor adaptation of the accesses, easily turned into a mud, the impossibility of finding a taxi at the exit of the stadium...
Very soon it was also found that the playing field did not correspond to the magnitude of the work: the grass did not filter the water. And already in the first years of activity leaks appeared in the main stand. But the work was there. 65 years old and close to his last services to FC Barcelona. It's time for the Espai Barça.
