Rabat – María Tato, the official who was too responsible for the organization of Spain for the FIFA World Cup 2030, resigned on Wednesday after serious allegations of manipulation of the selection criteria for cities.
The controversy broke out after the Spanish daily El Mundo published audio recordings, in which Tato discussed the change in the ratings in an Excel table to prefer San Sebastián’s Anoeta Stadium over the Balaídos Stadium in Vigo.
According to the Audio, Tato and her team changed the values in the table and repeated tests until they achieved the desired result. One of the extracts from the recording shows Tato: “Let us enter values in Excel to see what we get. This is the first test of 800 until we do the result correctly.”
After the publication of these records, Tato Rafael Louzán, President of the Spanish Football Association (RFEF), submitted her resignation to Rafael Louzán.
The scandal revolved around the accusation that Tato and her team manipulated the selection process to ensure World championship Consistencies, while Vigos Balaídos Stadium was excluded from the exam.
No technical explanation was presented for the scores that triggered outrage, especially in Vigo, where Mayor Abel Caballero and many locals expressed their anger.
Interestingly, sources near the investigation showed that Louzán had fired Tato in December after hearing the audio recordings, but decided to keep them in the role at that time.
In an exclusive interview with El Mundo after her resignation, Tato defended herself and claimed that she was “a scapegoat” in a larger political storm. “I am the victim of a perfect storm, on which political interests and the revenge of the members of the World championship Congrate committees, ”said Tato.
She admitted that she initially included Balaídos in the classification, but later corrected the results and quoted “an error” in her interpretation of the criteria. “I just corrected some mistakes in the interpretation when using the criteria and I didn’t do it alone,” she said.
