BARCELONA -- There's nothing nou about Camp Nou, Barcelona's iconic stadium. The red grandstand seats, meant to evoke the stripes on the Catalan flag, have faded to a flamingo pink. The concrete floors are mottled and scarred.
It's a fitting symbol for the vertiginous decline of a great football club. Barcelona's widely reported billion-euro shortfall had postponed a planned renovation of Camp Nou -- club members finally approved a revamp on Dec. 20 -- is only part of the problem, though it casts a shadow over everything else. When Real Betis arrived for a Saturday game in early December, Barcelona was mired in seventh place, lower than they have ended a LaLiga season since 1942.