Accusations of lack of capacity at Balaídos are a lie by Spanish federation president Rafael Louzán, who is hiding why Vigo was not chosen. At least, that's the claim of the mayor, who revealed that the city dropped out of the list of hosts for the 2030 World Cup due to a "lack of government influence" and is demanding that the scores of all the candidates be published.

"Shortcomings and lack of government influence" - Caballero vs. Calvo

Subjectivity, randomness and, probably, something much more serious, suggested Vigo mayor Abel Caballero on Wednesday. As he revealed, he received a letter from Diego Calvo, vice-president of Xunta - the government of Galicia - in which Calvo explained that the olive city had dropped out of the list of hosts for the 2030 World Cup due to probable shortcomings of the bid and the lack of influence of the local government.

The mayor considered the words scandalous and immediately called for the politician's resignation. According to Caballero, they imply that the hosts of the 2030 World Cup were chosen because of political influence and not the actual strengths and weaknesses of the candidates. What we are demanding as the Vigo City Council is to make public the scores that each host, each candidacy, has obtained in each of the [analysed - ed. note] characteristics, - he demanded.

“He is lying because he is hiding something” - Caballero vs. Louzán

The conflict between Vigo and Xunta is not the only controversy in the case, however. On Monday, Spanish federation (RFEF) president Rafael Louzán said, commenting on Valencia and Vigo's chances, that Vigo has it harder because of the size of Abanca Balaídos.

Caballero responded by saying that it had previously been explained to him that the reason for the rejection was the funding. If Louzán is lying, it is because he is hiding something, he stated. If the Vigo mayor is right, it would be the RFEF president's second stadium blunder after he claimed that the Camp Nou would be smaller than the Bernabéu.

© Xornal Vigo  | Mayor Abel Caballero does not understand the rejection of Balaídos, which he describes as an architectural gem. Pictured here, he points to the stadium.

Vigo’s “powerful project” lost - money, capacity or influence?

We have a powerful project, Caballero said in December 2023 when asked by an AS journalist about the city's chances to become a host. While the costs of remodeling Balaidos could be high, Vigo is one of the least indebted cities in Spain (€1 debt per capita), so rejecting the bid because of funding problems can be questionable. Especially as the cities chosen are high on the list of the most indebted large cities - Zaragoza is 3rd and Malaga 4th.

In terms of capacity, the city also had a plan. The proposal, published by local media, included the second redevelopment of the Tribunasector in a dozen years to increase its capacity by 3,000 seats. Together with the ongoing upgrade of the Gol sector, this would give a total capacity of around 31,500 seats. As a minimum of 40,000 seats are needed in the stands for the World Cup, the plan was to install over 10,000 temporary seats.

Such a solution would give the stadium 41,900 seats for the duration of the tournament, but would avoid Celta Vigo playing in a half-empty stadium afterwards. It therefore seems that capacity would not have been an issue, although questions may have been raised about the feasibility of the idea of adding 10,000 temporary seats.

The mayor of Vigo has long explained the decision to reject the candidacy by the anti-viguism of the RFEF and Xunta authorities - the federation's president comes from the centre-right PP party that governs Xunta, while Vigo is controlled by the left-wing PSOE - and vague interests. Now, faced with talk of a lack of local government influence and the failure to publish the scoring of the host cities, his accusations are gaining strength.

© Miguel Ciolczyk Garcia | After the Gol end redevelopment, Tribuna will be the only single-level stand. However, if Vigo were to host the World Cup, it would be upgraded again.