{"id":726431,"date":"2026-06-10T02:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T02:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726431\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T02:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T02:25:09","slug":"omar-artan-returns-home-after-being-denied-entry-to-united-states-ahead-of-fifa-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726431\/","title":{"rendered":"Omar Artan returns home after being denied entry to United States ahead of FIFA World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Somali football referee Omar Artan is returning home after being denied a chance to make his World Cup debut when the United State barred him from entering.<\/p>\n

Artan was expected to become the first Somali to officiate in a World Cup match.<\/p>\n

Stay across the latest news, analysis and features from the 2026 FIFA World Cup here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But a FIFA spokesperson said he would not be able to officiate or train at the tournament after he was \u200cdenied entry to the United States over the weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking at Istanbul Airport before boarding a flight to Somalia, Artan said he was in good spirits.<\/p>\n

Somali referee denied entry to US<\/a><\/p>\n

Highly rated Somali referee Omar Artan is turned away from the US just days before he was expected to officiate in the FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n

“I feel very good now,” Artan said.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to thank \u200cFIFA for supporting me all the way and the Somali people, also. So, I am \u2060very grateful for FIFA and CAF, also.”<\/p>\n

Somalia’s government said it had unsuccessfully tried to \u200cnegotiate with the US and FIFA so Artan could enter the country.<\/p>\n

“His international achievements are a source of honour and pride for the Somali people,” Somalia’s sports ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Somali Football Federation said it had not received an \u200cofficial explanation for why Artan was denied entry.<\/p>\n

It was working with FIFA and the relevant authorities to understand the circumstances.<\/p>\n

When does the FIFA World Cup start and who are the favourites?<\/a><\/p>\n

The FIFA World Cup is the biggest single-sport event on the planet and has delivered numerous historical moments, from Diego Maradona’s “hand of God” in 1986 to Zinedine Zidane’s infamous headbutt on Marco Materazzi.<\/p>\n

A FIFA spokesperson said the organisation was “not involved in host country immigration \u2060processes, including visa adjudications, and has been informed \u200cby authorities that Mr Artan’s status \u200cwill not be changed at present”.<\/p>\n

Artan would also be unable to referee games in Mexico and Canada.<\/p>\n

FIFA’s head \u200cof match officials, Pierluigi Collina, has set up a training hub in Miami for the 140 referees and assistant referees participating in the event.<\/p>\n

These officials are required to stay at the training base for logistical and security reasons; therefore, it would not be possible for Artan to referee games in Canada and Mexico without setting foot in the US.<\/p>\n

US Customs and Border Protection said that, without naming him, a Somali national who arrived at Miami International Airport from Istanbul on Saturday was deemed inadmissible due to vetting concerns.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Trump administration imposed a travel ban on citizens of 12 countries, including Somalia.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport will be live blogging every moment of the FIFA World Cup. Follow live at abc.net.au\/news\/sport.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Somali football referee Omar Artan is returning home after being denied a chance to make his World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,75345,58364,2065,2490,13201,596,2184,351856,38568,85,1055,2489,21418],"class_list":["post-726431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-border","tag-border-security","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-mexico","tag-omar-abdulkadir-artan","tag-somalia","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}