🏆 Referee announced for 2026 #SuperCup!
We're pleased to share that Somali referee Omar Artan will officiate the highly anticipated match between PSG and Aston Villa in Salzburg.
🗣️ Omar Abdulkadir Artan tells @nytimes he had the correct paperwork to enter America.
"I had the right papers and everything. I had the right visa...
"I'm very, very disappointed. I'm just simply a referee who's trying to live his dream, the biggest dream of my life, to come to the World Cup."
A Somali referee who is due to officiate at the World Cup has been denied entry to the U.S. after “vetting concerns” emerged upon his arrival in Florida over the weekend.
Omar Artan arrived at Miami International Airport on a flight from Istanbul on Saturday but was barred from entering the country following a “routine” inspection, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed in a statement to The Athletic.
Artan, the 2025 Confederation of African Football men’s referee of the year, is one of 52 referees handpicked by world governing body FIFA for the tournament.
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