Madrid - Spanish leaders Barcelona are ready to move to their new training ground in Saint Joan Despi, according to Catalan daily Sport on Friday.

The "Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper" ("Joan Gamper Sporting City"), named after the club's 1899 Swiss founder, is located in the district of Sant Joan Despi, 4.5 kilometres from the club's famous Camp Nou stadium and covers 136,839 square metres.

It was built between 2004 and 2006, at a cost of 68 million euros (92.76 million dollars), partly as a response to historic rivals Real Madrid building their own new training ground in the Madrid suburb of Valdebebas.

It was officially opened by Barca president Joan Laporta in June 2006 but so far has only been used for youth team training and matches.

Until now, the Barca first team squad has continued to train next to the Camp Nou.

Sport reveals on Friday, though, that Guardiola visited the "Ciutat Esportiva" on Thursday, and has decided to start training sessions there, on a permanent basis, from next week onwards.

Espanyol, Barca's crosstown rivals, are building their own new stadium in the Barcelona suburb. Their old Sarria stadium, used for some 1982 World Cup matches, was knocked down in 1997 and since then Espanyol have been playing at the chilly Montjuic Olympic stadium, built for the 1992 summer Olympics.

Other Spanish clubs planning new stadia are Valencia and Atletico Madrid. (dpa)