Israel | KAN Suspends Ticket Sales For The Eurovision Song Contest 2019

News, and more drama just in. It has been reported by 'Harretz' , that the national broadcaster for Israel, KAN, has had to suspend ticket sales after serious irregularities were found of the ticket sales.

According to the Israeli journal it is so serious that the police may have to get involved, due to suspicions of a large scale scalping of tickets. KAN have also confirmed that they have had to take such measures.

KAN has released a statement saying, "regulatory systems of the corporation identified and attempt to interfere in ticket sales, and suspects that hundreds of tickets, worth hundreds of thousands of shekels... were sold to senior figures in entertainment in sport instead of being offered to the public".

Check out Andy, Michael, and Inbal's reaction to the Israeli representative Kobi Marimi this year:

The issue of tickets being bought in large numbers, and sold for extortionate amounts have become a real issue in previous years. Other contests have had issues with websites selling Eurovision tickets for triple or quadruple the face value. The EBU has advised fans to only by from the official vendor Leaan who have also fallen victim to this "exploitation". However, the vendor, KAN and the Israeli ministry who have ordered this suspension of ticket sales, and investigation, need to be commended for such swift action in trying to make the selling of tickets, as fair as possible for fans.

This news only comes a day after the Public Secretary Minister Gilad Erdan ordered the Israeli police to deal with this situation. There are clauses in the penal code that state that this act is a criminal matter, and would warrant a police investigation.

The Minister, Erdan has said, "Exploitation of the public event via ticket scalping is an ugly, and illegal phenomenon. It cannot be that a joyful, historic event with an international audience will be weaponised by criminals who are marring the image of the state".

It was also recently announced that there would be a second round of ticket sales for fans who missed out earlier this week to happen in April. However, this too has also be suspended. It is refreshing to see the organisers actively seeking to prevent this. Eurovoxx are sure there will be more to this story. So stay tuned for more info.

Were you one of the lucky ones to get a ticket? Are you happy with KAN's response? Please tell us your thoughts in the comments below.