Eurovision 2107 may take place in Russia instead of Ukraine
If Kyiv does not announce within the next week which Ukrainian city will host Eurovision in 2017, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) may transfer the rights to another country.
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Izvestia was informed about this by the press service of the EBU.
“Ukraine won the competition in 2016, which means they also won the right to host it in their country. No one can take away their winner status. However, regarding the timing, the decision should have been made much earlier. We are closely watching as the three cities fight hard for the right to host the competition, but we do not know when the final decision will be officially announced. The deadline is no later than the beginning of October,” the press service said.
“Australia, which took part in the competition for the second time, took second place at Eurovision 2016. Under agreements with the EBU, due to its geographical location, Australia nominally becomes a co-organizer of the event, but the competition itself must be held in the European region. According to the rules, Russia can become the second co-organizer of Eurovision in 2017, as the country that took third place in the competition,” the publication notes.
It is noteworthy that the Ukrainian authorities still cannot agree on the location of the event - because of this, preparations for the competition have not yet begun. Official Kyiv has already postponed the announcement of the winner several times. So, on August 25, the government press service simply canceled the press conference at which the city that would host Eurovision was supposed to be announced. Previously, the competition commission also postponed the announcement of the winner, explaining this by financial difficulties. The true reasons remain unknown, but many attribute this to political strife within the country.
The general director of the National Television Company of Ukraine, Zurba Alasania, also told Izvestia that the EMU is rushing Ukraine to make a decision.
“The biggest concern is whether the entire infrastructure will be ready by May next year. I am now beginning to think that politics is involved here. Nobody understands why the resolution of this issue is being postponed,” Alasania laments.
He also said that today there are only two candidate cities left, but each of them has serious problems that have not yet been eliminated in terms of the possibility of organizing the competition.
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