Eurovision has frozen its ticket sales for the 2019 event, which will be held in Israel, due to supposed “irregularities” with the official ticket vendor.
The Kan Israeli public broadcaster reportedly instructed Leann, the Israeli ticketing firm chosen to be this year’s supplier, to halt sales until further notice.
The broadcaster’s oversight committee had reportedly noticed hundreds of tickets were being resold at a profit.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has requested police to investigate the suspicions raised by Kan officials, according to the Times of Israel.
Kan said its oversight committee “identified an attempt by various parties to intervene in the sales process, with hundreds of tickets – worth hundreds of thousands of shekels – in the arena’s best seats sold to top sports and media executives and not to the public, which is firmly against the guidelines set by the broadcaster’s board of directors.”
Kan officials said all sales would be frozen until the suspicions were looked into further. Any tickets that were found to have been sold illegally would be rereleased to the public.
“Exploitation of the public by scalping tickets is disgusting and illegal,” Erdan said in a statement. “It’s inconceivable that a historic and joyous event will be used by criminals to defame Israel.”
Eurovision 2019 will be held in Tel Aviv from May 14-19, with nine live shows in total.
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