Maria Tato has broken her silence. The member of the Spanish World Cup bid, already dismissed from the Spanish federation, denounces that the recordings have been manipulated, and the score of Estadio Anoeta was corrected after an "error". The RFEF has decided not to change the venues and president Rafael Louzán distances himself from the case.

Chronology

Overnight from Sunday to Monday, El Mundo published the transcripts of the meeting of the technical team for Spain's 2030 World Cup bid, which took place on 25 June 2024 near Madrid. It was attended by María Tato, Fernando Sanz, Jorge Mowinckel and Marta Alcalde. Their aim was to score the 15 candidates to become host cities.

According to the newspaper, after the meeting, the then vice-president of the federation Rafael Louzán received a sheet from Maria Tato in which Balaídos - home of Celta Vigo - was a few hundredths ahead of the stadium from San Sebastian - Anoeta. However after 48 hours a second Excel sheet was prepared, correcting the results of Anoeta, which was 0.4 points ahead of Vigo's bid. It was the latter version that was officially presented to FIFA.

The result of the publication of the results was a scandal: the mayor of Vigo accused the now federation president Louzán of manipulating the scores for motives political (they are from opposing parties). In turn, members of the technical team began to blame each other for the change in scoring.

"I am the victim of a perfect storm".

María Tato, one of the responsible for putting together the controversial score of the Spanish venues for the 2030 World Cup, has spoken to SER and El Mundo to denounce that she is the victim of a perfect storm in which political interests and vendettas converge.

Although the Spanish federation (RFEF) said she has been dismissed, she claims that it was her decision and that she resigned from her post because she could not withstand the media pressure of these days. In this way, there is no longer anyone left in the federation from the members of the technical team of the bid.

Tato announced that she had taken legal action against the person who recorded her at the meeting on June 25. I don't wish anyone to be recorded, cut and published on the internet with manipulated materials, she explains. She indicates that the meeting lasted several hours, while the published audios are barely a minute long.

"We penalised Anoeta in a mistake"

And she gives her version of events: In a first draft we penalised them [Anoeta and RCDE Stadium] in an error of criteria. According to Tato, it was Jorge Mowinckel who realised the mistake and the two of them, together with Fernando Sanz, decided to change the score, which was based on FIFA's criteria for the venues of the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil.

However, Sanz assured in an interview with El Chiringuito that the Excel wasn’t prepared in that meeting, but it was done by Maria Tato in her office, and he only received the version in which Anoeta entered the World Cup and Balaídos was left out. Tato replied to this accusation in an interview for El Correo, reminding him that he appears in the audios of the meeting where the first Excel was produced. Something doesn't add up, she says.

© Athletic Club | María Tato was part of the team of the Spanish bid for the 2030 World Cup. In the photo, at a meeting during her time at Athletic.

Four versions of the case

Tato has prepared a report on how the 2030 World Cup venues were chosen. The federation accepts Tato's explanations, stating that there has not been any kind of manipulation, but assures that she has been dismissed.

Meanwhile, RFEF president Rafael Louzán has finally spoken out this Friday. If it is understood that the scores have been manipulated, you should ask those responsible, he dissociates himself from the case.

In this way, even without being fully resolved and clarified in the media, the case seems to be closed for the RFEF, which is not going to change the venues. However, there are still at least four different versions of what happened:

• Tato's version: there were several Excel, and the replacement of Balaidos by Anoeta was due to a mistake that was jointly corrected at the meeting. Tato resigned alone to avoid being the target in the case.
• The RFEF's version: there were five Excel, neither president Rocha nor vice-president Louzán pressured the technical team, and Tato's explanations are valid. However, she has been dismissed.
• Sanz's version: María Tato prepared the Excel in her office and the rest of the team only knew the final score, with Anoeta as World Cup host.
• The El Mundo version: The team jointly drafted the first Excel, sent to Louzán. The second was produced less than 48 hours later and finally chosen for submission to FIFA.