TV says Cliff Richard's Eurovision win blocked

MADRID (Reuters) - Cliff Richard was robbed of victory in the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest after Spanish dictator Francisco Franco fixed the vote, according to a documentary.

Richard was the bookmakers' favourite to win with his song "Congratulations" however Spanish contestant Massiel pipped him to the title by just one point with "La La La" -- Spain's first of two victories in the competition's 52-year history.

"It was a fix," the documentary's producer Montse Fernandez Vila quoted Spanish television presenter Jose Maria Inigo as saying. "Massiel won Eurovision with bought votes."

Spanish TV executives travelled Europe promising to buy second-rate programmes and concerts billing strange acts in return for Eurovision votes, Inigo told the documentary.

Victory was seen as vital to General Franco's fascist regime in boosting Spain's image abroad, Fernandez Vila said.

Eurovision ended voting by national juries to avoid such scams said Bjorn Erichsen, Director of organisers Eurovision TV, though he had only heard of plots to swap votes, not buy them.

"Franco was really so keen for Spain to win it? We're not talking about NATO here or the EU, or political influence, we're talking about a pop song contest," Erichsen said laughing, before adding: "I can't exclude the possibility it might be true.

Spain only drafted Massiel in at the last moment after Joan Manuel Serrat, who was meant to sing at the London event, refused to perform "La La La" in Spanish rather than his native Catalan -- a regional language repressed during the dictatorship.

"If you look back at the (propaganda newsreel), you realise with all the parties that were organised and the way Massiel was turned into a national hero ... it was excessive for a song festival. It all served to glorify the regime," Fernandez said.