Tarragona should have given up the organisation of the Mediterranean Games if it was not ready for them, because the damage which has been caused to the city's image is starting to be significant and the full breadth of organisational disasters of all types which have occurred is already beyond the scope of a text like this. The truth is that even with the extra year granted to set up the event ―the Games were originally planned for June 2017― the organising committee has not been capable of overcoming either its own partisanship in an international sporting occasion or even just the logistics of an event involving multiple venues.
The constant presence of empty seats, the national anthems that were not played and had to be sung by those who were present, authorities who arrived too late to present medals, a driver of an official car who ran over a five-year-old boy ―his prognosis is serious― and then drove off, the strike by wrestling referees because they were not paid their food and board allowances. We could go on, but it's not necessary. The fiasco is so clear and damaging for the country that one must hope that once the Games are over, the appropriate steps are taken and responsibilities are accepted by those who have wrapped their incompetence in the Spanish flag.
Because this is what the Mediterranean Games in Tarragona have been all about: a half-empty stage-set covered in Spanish flags at the opening ceremony in the stadium, cutting off at the root any element that could betray the attempt to portray a Catalonia that doesn't actually exist.
So much effort was employed to achieve this, going as far as handing out tickets for the opening ceremony in function of the ideology of the would-be spectator, that it bordered on the ridiculous. Perhaps those concerned will not recognize this or will even hide the fact in their own self-interest. But it is bad business to associate Tarragona with failure. And for a long time this connection is now going to be made.