Spanish broadcaster TVE have surprisingly announced today that Spain will not be broadcasting the forthcoming Eurovision Dance Contest, to be held on September 6th. Instead, the public broadcaster will air the football match Spain v Bosnia & Herzegovina. Sister channel TVE2 will not broadcast the event. The EBU however, has told esctoday.com that they have received no official withdrawal at this time

It was known time ago that Eurovision Dance Contest would be held on September 6th, and on the same date Spanish football team would play against Bosnia & Herzegovina in a match of the FIFA World Cup qualifying round. Finally, the public television has decided to schedule the game instead of the European event.

This decision came this morning, just 17 days before the event takes place in Glasgow and few days after Spain was drawn a lucky last place in the running order. If confirmed that Spain has withdrawn, itmeans that the dancing couple, Rosa and Nieto – winner of the contest ¡Quiero bailar!, organised by TVE with the aim of choosing the professional dancer for Glasgow – would have to end all their preparations because they would not be representing their country anymore.

esctoday.com asked the EBU if the decision had been confirmed to the organisation in Geneva, we were told "The EBU did not receive any formal withdrawal from Spanish broadcaster TVE, so I do not want to respond to this speculation".

Spanish viewerswanting to watch the contest live will not have the chance of watching it on the public channel. Sister channel TVE2 will not air the event so the audience will have to watch Eurovision Dance Contest on eurovision.tv or on other European broadcasters via satellite.

It remains to be seen if Spain will participate and broadcast the show at a later date. Should this be the case, Spanish voting will be conducted by the backup jury. Withdrawal at such a late stage would mean TVE must still pay the full participation fee and hotel costs.