In the latest development on the current non payment of the security deposit of 12 Million Euros due tomorrow from the Israeli state broadcaster to the EBU, a statement has now been issued by the EBU themselves.

They told fellow Eurovision fansite esctoday the following:

The EBU is working closely with KAN ahead of tomorrow’s deadline, on advancing arrangements for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Israel. Every year financial guarantees must be made to the EBU before plans are put in place and the host city for the Eurovision Song Contest is announced.

If a situation ever arose in which a broadcaster could not fulfil their requirements there are always contingency plans in place, as is normal when planning such a large event with many international stakeholders.

We can conclude from that statement that the payment is still to be made by the Israeli public broadcaster and that a ‘Plan B’ has been put in place.

Julien Bahlou, an Israeli-French former anchor for the i24 news channel believes that the Plan B would be Austria:

Source israélienne : le plan b serait l’Autriche arrivée en 3e place. Chypre (2nd place) n’aurait pas les moyens de financer le concours.

— Julien Bahloul (@julienbahloul) August 13, 2018

This translates to:

Israeli source: Plan B would be Austria who finished in 3rd place.  Second place Cyprus would not have the means to finance the competition.

He later tweeted the following dramatic statement:

#Eurovision 2019 : Le bras de fer se poursuit. Le gouvernement menace de fermer la chaîne télé publique si elle finance pas elle même l’organisation du concours.
Rappel : la chaîne refuse toute intervention politique, mais affirme avoir besoin des fonds de l’Etat.

— Julien Bahloul (@julienbahloul) August 13, 2018

The arm of iron continues.  The government is threatening to close the public TV channel if it does not finance the organisation of the competition.  Reminder: The channel refuses any political intervention, but claims to need the funds of the state.

UPDATE:

The Mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, has now offered to host the contest and to also pay for hosting!

As the deadline approaches tomorrow keep checking back to ESCBubble for the latest in this ongoing drama.  Let us know your thoughts on our social channels!