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The tournament is supposed to bring together the best of the best in football - players, coaches and officials. Omar Artan is the number one referee from Africa. He will not be allowed to officiate at the World Cup. Artan, from Somalia, flew into Miami to join up with the other 51 referees. After what he says was an 11-hour grilling by immigration officials, he was put back on a plane. "It is pretty clear that the fears of an ideological and discriminatory visa policy from the US government is being realised," said Piara Powar, executive director of discrimination campaign group Fare. "Never have we seen the farce of an official Fifa referee being refused entry as he arrives for final preparations." Concerns remain about the potential presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at stadiums, and how fans could be affected. With 48 hours still to go until the World Cup kicks off, does Fifa have little control about what will happen outside the stadiums? Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Omar Artan has refereed several major games over the past 12 months, including the African Champions League final and the third-place play-off of the U-20 World Cup in Chile After the controversy of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments in Russia and Qatar, the 2026 edition was supposed to give everyone a chance to concentrate on the football. Remarkably, this World Cup is in danger of being more controversial. The astronomical cost of tickets, a subpoena over ticket practices, criticism of Fifa over hotel bookings and transport prices have dogged the build-up. But this story is about a member of Fifa's own delegation being subjected to hours of questioning before being put on a flight back to from where they came. Artan had a year to remember in 2025, becoming the first Somali to take charge of a continental final. In June 2025, he officiated the second leg of Pyramids FC's African Champions League final victory over Mamelodi Sundowns. Fifa appointed Artan to the U-20 World Cup in Chile, where he took charge of three matches including the third-place play-off. At the end of the year he refereed two group games at the Africa Cup of Nations, having also officiated at the tournament in 2024. Then in March 2026, Artan received the ultimate accolade which should have been the pinnacle of his career. "Every referee's ambition is to go to the World Cup," Artan told BBC Somali in an interview last week. "When you are selected, you feel that all your hard work was worth it. Years of effort finally made sense." Artan should have become the first Somali to officiate at the World Cup. Instead, he is en route back to the capital, Mogadishu. Artan told the New York Times, external how he faced an 11-hour immigration interview, and was then detained for several hours. "I had the right papers and everything. I had the right visa," Artan said. Speaking to BBC World Service, Andrew Giuliani, who leads the White House Task Force on the World Cup, said: "While I can't go into the derog [derogatory information] on that I can tell you it was the right decision by customs and border patrol and I support that decision." The referee's story tells us that no-one is going to receive special treatment from this administration. That includes national team delegates and supporters. "Every few hours it's another story, another story about fans denied, players denied, officials denied, journalists denied, now refs," former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright posted on Instagram., external Fifa president Gianni Infantino has ingratiated himself with United States President Donald Trump over the past two years. Trump was controversially awarded the first-ever Fifa Peace Prize, handed out during the World Cup draw ceremony in December. Just a few weeks later, American forces captured the Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro following strikes on the country at the start of the year. Then in February, the US joined forces with Israel to launch attacks on Iran. For the first time, a World Cup host will be at war with one of the visiting nations. When Trump first took office as president in 2017, one of his first executive orders was to ban travel by foreign nationals from seven majority-Muslim countries - including Somalia. At that time, Infantino suggested such a move could invalidate a country's World Cup hosting rights. "It's obvious when it comes to Fifa competitions, any team, including the supporters and officials of that team, who qualify for a World Cup, need to have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup," Infantino said. In 2023, Fifa did strip Indonesia of hosting rights for the U-20 World Cup after Bali's governor Wayan Koster refused to allow the Israel team to stay.
Original Source: BBC Sport
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