{"id":246508,"date":"2026-08-12T17:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/246508\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T17:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:47:13","slug":"eyeing-israels-near-wins-eurovision-to-bar-conflict-hit-countries-from-hosting-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/246508\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyeing Israel\u2019s near-wins, Eurovision to bar conflict-hit countries from hosting contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Broadcasting Union on Wednesday issued new rules ahead of next year\u2019s competition, seemingly aimed at ensuring Israel will not be able to host the 2028 contest even if it wins next year.<\/p>\n

Generally, the EBU regulations stipulate that the country that wins the contest hosts the following year \u2014 but a number of exceptions have been made. Ukraine won in 2022, but the 2023 competition was hosted in the UK due to the ongoing war in the country. Countries have also given up their right to host in the past, including Israel when it won back-to-back in 1978 and 1979.<\/p>\n

According to fresh rules posted on the Eurovision site on Wednesday, the EBU \u201cmay designate another Participating Broadcaster to host the Event\u201d if it determines that the winner is unable to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere an armed conflict, a sensitive geopolitical situation, or any other situation materially affects the security, safety or stability of the immediate region of a Participating Broadcaster, that Participating Broadcaster shall not be eligible to host the next ESC should its entry win,\u201d the new regulations state.<\/p>\n

The EBU could, however, determine that the country is eligible to host if it is \u201csatisfied that the safety, security, integrity, continuity and smooth operational delivery of the Event can reasonably be guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The regulations also note that the \u201c\u2019immediate region\u2019 means the country of the Participating Broadcaster concerned and\/or neighbouring territories where such a situation has a direct and material impact on its security environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tNoam Bettan from Israel, center, reacts as the points are awarded during the Grand Final of the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, May 17, 2026. (AP\/Martin Meissner)<\/p>\n

The new rules have been widely reported as aimed directly at the possibility of an Israeli win in future competitions, amid ongoing Israeli conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and with Iran.<\/p>\n

Several countries\u2019 public broadcasters forced an indirect<\/a> vote last year on Israel\u2019s participation in the contest, after pushing for years to oust the country over its war against Hamas in Gaza.<\/p>\n

After a majority of members chose to adopt a package of reforms<\/a> last year to Eurovision\u2019s voting system, seen as a proxy for approving Israel\u2019s continued participation, five countries backed out in protest of Israel: Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain. The latter had been one of the \u201cBig Five\u201d countries that provide an especially large financial contribution to the contest.<\/p>\n

Eurovision\u2019s director has ruled out an additional vote<\/a> on the matter ahead of next year\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n

At this year\u2019s contest in Vienna, Israel\u2019s Noam Bettan came in second place, as did Yuval Raphael last year. The close calls alarmed many Eurovision viewers who did not deem Israel a safe or comfortable host for the song contest. Israel most recently hosted in 2019, after Netta Barzilai won a year earlier with \u201cToy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2027 competition is slated to be held in Bulgaria in May of next year. The final dates and host city are slated to be announced by the EBU on Thursday.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Broadcasting Union on Wednesday issued new rules ahead of next year\u2019s competition, seemingly aimed at ensuring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[2238,35903,3741,37,35902],"class_list":["post-246508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-bulgaria","tag-ebu-european-broadcasting-union","tag-eurovision-song-contest","tag-israel","tag-noam-bettan"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117083796037987964","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}