Omar Artan

Omar Artan was turned back at Miami International Airport on 7 June 2026 despite holding a valid US Visa, US Customs and Border Protection citing inadmissibility due to vetting concerns; Somalia sits on the Trump administration's travel-ban list. Weeks later, UEFA named him to referee the UEFA Super Cup between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa in August 2026, on European soil, a pointed response to his exclusion from the tournament he had been appointed to officiate.

Artan is one of 52 FIFA-appointed officials for the 2026 World Cup and was named the 2025 CAF Male Referee of the Year by the Confederation of African Football, making him one of the most decorated referees on the continent. He had cleared all routine FIFA eligibility requirements before the US ban was applied at the port of entry, and would have been the first Somali national to officiate a World Cup match.

His barring became part of a broader pattern of access-denial affecting players, officials and supporters during the 2026 tournament window: an Iraqi team photographer was refused entry outright and Iraq striker Aymen Hussein was detained for seven hours at Chicago O'Hare. Ghana's Thomas Partey then lost a Canadian court appeal over a separate refusal, the first judicial rejection in the chain. UEFA's Super Cup appointment made Artan the clearest reversal in that pattern: a host nation kept him from one tournament, and Europe's governing body handed him one of its own biggest fixtures weeks later.