Cinnamon Bun

Preventing a potential historical moment for her country of birth.... selfish bugger!!

That's an additional continental quota that's separate from the ones handed out at the qualifier. I can only assume the losing semi finalists will play eachother with the winner of that match facing the losing finalist for the last quota.

Yes, there are no more World Cup events left in Trap and Skeet.

This time feels different though. He had a good result the week before a qualification event, something which he hasn't had throughout the period. Furthermore, the fact he got quite a bit of insurance with 1 of 5 athletes (3 French and 2 Italian) qualifying here also giving him an Olympic quota. Either way even if he doesn't get through this, I'm personally not too sure he will, I still reckon one of the French or non qualified Italian athletes will get through as they've been showing some good form as of late in quali events.

A French quota also qualifies Llewellin if he fails at Euros. Don't think he will though, performed really well at Baku last week.

Brilliant from Hursey, after having a disappointing qualifying campaign in the team and mixed doubles at least matching our total from Tokyo would definitely make up for it. Only 1 more to go now from either Ho or Drinkhall.

That's very true. It spreads the development of players across four nations which ultimately stunts the development of young prospects as they're not getting the best coaching and development that GB as a whole has to offer. Also having to rely on players from the Asia region having dual citizenship isn't helping that cause.

Ho actually ended up winning that set and went 3-1 up, but Eerland came back and won 4-3. She will get another chance in the second qualifier tomorrow and Sunday.

Anna Hursey comes back from 3-0 down against the Slovakian Tatiana Kukulkova (who was one of the favourites to qualify). She's now one game away from qualifying for the Olympics. Tin-Tin Ho is currently 2-1 up against Britt Eerland from Holland, with the Dutch lass looking set to make it 2-2.

Hinson too is in a similar boat to Strachen, but I reckon it's a bit easier for him to get in with a top 20 finish probably being good enough to qualify.

He failed to punish the Israeli delegation members who were harassing pro Palestinian artists and journalists and also failed to punish those people for antagonising the Israeli delegation which caused them to fight back. Both sides broke multiple rules. If Israel ends up competing next year after this year's events then I think his job is well and truly gone as we can't have a repeat of this year again. I don't think they will though as I expect multiple broadcasters to threaten to pull out if Israel are allowed to compete next year.

6 countries is probably a bit optimistic, although , and look like they might have enough money to re-enter next year. are also said to be joining as they have the foundations set and all they need is the EBU to accept their broadcaster as a full member. are also heavily interested in returning, and the successful return of Luxembourg this year definitely helps that cause. is more of a realistic hope than anything, and their participation is pretty much 50/50 as they're communication on any form of Eurovision participation is extremely poor. I also didn't say Sweden would pull out next year. Sweden is the nationality of Martin Osterdaal, who I fully expect to resign from the EBU by tomorrow.

Moving swiftly on to next year's contest, I hope we can get back above 40 countries and return to how things were at Liverpool 2023. Here are my predictions for which countries will come in and out: In: Out: - Martin Osterdaal

I thought Ukraine's was really good this year too and they thoroughly deserved to finish top 5. In terms of the winner, I thought Croatia's was better than Switzerland and deserved to win. Also fancied a trip to Zagreb next year .

I don't know what it's like in other countries but I doubt right wing political figures would have that much influence on how an entire country votes. I know for a fact that in the UK, even though the top 3 parties aren't far right or far left, no right wing political tried to persuade people to vote for Israel because of the conflict and many people I know voted for Israel because they felt sorry for Eden and we're upset at how she was treated.

Yes they will probably use the result for their own propaganda even though people who voted for them most likely did so for Eden and not for the country (as someone who is centre left (votes for Labour who is the main centre left/left wing party in the UK) and is mostly pro Israel even I voted for Israel because I felt sorry for Eden and not because I favour Israel in the Israel/Palestine conflict). I'm still happy for Eden that Israel got a big score, after all the bullying and abuse she's been through this week it was thoroughly deserved. As for Osterdaal and the EBU they need to resign. Multiple countries broke multiple rules this contest and should've been disqualified, including Israel, Ireland and Portugal. The Dutch disqualification was the icing on the cake though as it was so petty and probably done to stop there being I riot from Israel from winning as they'd have probably won if the Dutch were still in as he'd have taken up a big chunk of Tele votes. I can't see a world where Israel takes part until the current Israel/Palestine conflict is over, despite the majority of people who watch Eurovision not caring about Israel's participation the majority of people who actually attend the event are pro Palestine and we can't have another situation like this year.

I would hardly call it naive. When it comes to contest like this the majority of the public don't vote based off politics preferences and political allies, they instead vote based off the performances on the night. They would have heard the boos in the arena and on social media from other performances in the week and voted for Eden out of sympathy for the reaction she got. Yes the Israeli delegation were harassing other artists and journalists but we're doing so after what they said about their country, and Eden was involved in none of this and has made no political statement or aggravate the pro-Palestine supporters in any way. Fans, artists and delegations took their political views into this contest when it should've been about uniting everyone with music no matter what country you're from, and their behaviour prevented that from happening.

Don't think Israel scoring high had a lot to do with right wing/centre left and right politics. Like I said before people don't like bullies, they'd have seen how much Eden was getting wrongly booed for doing nothing wrong and voted her to fight back against those who have been bullying her all week.

He just comes across as very fake to me. He was also one of the ones who bullied the Israeli girl.

Not a bad result in the end. Preferred Croatia's song but Switzerland's was good too and well sang, just don't like Nemo as a person. Also really happy Israel did well given the wrongful hounding she's received this week. The public don't like bullies, and it showed tonight. The vast majority will have voted for Israel because she got booed and not necessarily because they support Israel in the Israel/Palestine war, and rightfully so. We need a clean slate for next year though if this contest is to do what it's intended and be a friendly celebration of music like it was in Liverpool 2023, and that starts with Osterdaal and co resigning and all the people who broke any competition rules this year being rightfully punished.

For me the so called hardcore Eurovision fans in the arena and on social media have ruined Eurovision this year and made it political. I reckon if it was Palestine participating this year and not Israel, we would not be having this much outrage. As for the Israeli delegation harassing journalists and artist of other countries for saying free Palestine and stuff like, both sides should've been banned from this year for making it political instead of uniting people with music no matter their nationality and political beliefs.

Tbf when she lived in Russia and visited Crimea is was only a child and probably did what her parents told her to do. Either way she is completely in this scenario and is being ruthlessly picked apart by people in the arena and on social media, the public won't stand for this.

Eurovision will continue past this point. Even though the pro Palestine Eurovision fans have been the loudest whether that's in the arena or on social media, they are massively outnumbered by the people who are in support of Eden Golan (not necessarily Israel in the Israel/Palestine war, just Eden Golan as an innocent party). And as long as it stays that way, this contest will survive.

I'll have to start instigating some drama for the next edition. @Makedonas and @Wumoget into a scrap before the jury votes with @heywoodugetting caught in the crossfire trying to break it up.

Swedish media have now announced that Joost had an altercation with a female photographer and that he's being prosecuted with threatening behaviour. The altercation was not physical. Must've said summat bad for him to be getting prosecuted.