OREANDA-NEWS  Sale of tickets for the song contest "Eurovision-2019" in Israel suspended due to possible abuse in their implementation. This was reported by the Ninth channel of Israeli television.

"In Israel, the sale of tickets for the Eurovision song contest has been suspended, the semifinal and final parts of which will be held this year in tel Aviv from 14 to 18 may. The decision on temporary freezing of ticket sales made by the Israeli Corporation for public broadcasting Kan responsible for the conduct of the contest. The reason is that when selling tickets, the best seats were taken by representatives of the cultural and sports elite, which aroused suspicions among the regulatory authorities," the TV channel said.

Ticket sales on the Eurovision website began on the evening of February 28. "An hour later, all tickets for the final of the competition were sold out. At the same time, many people wishing to enter the competition from Europe, America and Australia complained about problems with access to the site," the Ninth channel notes. According to him, shortly after the proposal to sell tickets at prices 2.5 times higher than those set by the organizers, appeared on sale in social networks.

Israeli Minister of internal security Gilad Erdan ordered law enforcement agencies to take immediate measures against speculators. According to him, it is about "the ugly and illegal phenomenon darkening a festive and joyful event and undermining the international image of the country".

May 13, 2018 at the Eurovision song contest in Lisbon won the Israeli Netta Barzilay with the song "Toy". According to the rules of the competition, next year it is held in the country represented by the winner of the previous review. Israel has previously hosted this international song contest twice-in 1979 and 1999.

Two semifinals of Eurovision 2019 will be held at the Tel Aviv Exhibition center on 14 and 16 May 2019. The final of the competition will be held there on may 18. Leading "Eurovision-2019" will be the famous Israeli supermodel bar Raphael and TV presenter and showman Erez Tal. Russia at the competition will be presented by singer Sergey Lazarev.