{"id":350917,"date":"2026-06-10T00:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T23:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/somali-ref-says-dream-ruined-as-hes-banned-from-entering-us-for-world-cup\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T00:00:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T23:00:29","slug":"somali-ref-says-dream-ruined-as-hes-banned-from-entering-us-for-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/somali-ref-says-dream-ruined-as-hes-banned-from-entering-us-for-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Somali ref says &#8216;dream&#8217; ruined as he&#8217;s banned from entering US for World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.ytimg.com\/vi\/8azDcbPPXvg\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Somali ref says 'dream' ruined as he's banned from entering US for World Cup\"><br \/> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8azDcbPPXvg\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>A Somali referee, due to officiate at the 2026 World Cup, was subjected to an 11-hour immigration interview before being denied entry to the US, despite holding the &quot;right papers&quot; and &quot;right visa&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Omar Artan, who was due to become the first Somali referee to officiate at a World Cup match, was removed from the list of officials on Monday after he was barred from entering the US at Miami International Airport after arriving from Istanbul on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>He was denied entry to the country due to &quot;vetting concerns&quot;, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very, very disappointed,\u201d Artan told The New York Times on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just simply a referee who\u2019s trying to live his dream, the biggest dream of my life, to come to the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Artan added: \u201cI had the right papers and everything. I had the right visa.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>When questioned by US border officials, Artan said they reviewed online information about his career.<\/p>\n<p>After an 11-hour interview, he said he was taken to a holding cell, where he was detained for several more hours before being placed on a flight back to Istanbul.<\/p>\n<p>Artan added that officials asked him why he had travelled to the US and questioned him about politics in Somalia.<\/p>\n<p>According to Artan, many of the questions focused on Al Shabab, the militant group that controls parts of Somalia and has waged a long-running insurgency against the country&#8217;s government.<\/p>\n<p>US officials did not give him a reason for refusing him entry to the country, Artan said.<\/p>\n<p>Artan, who was named the Confederation of African Football&#8217;s referee of the year in 2025, said in an earlier statement that &quot;despite the circumstances, I am in a positive mood, and I am focused on the next challenges in my refereeing career.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>He said: &quot;I would like to thank FIFA and the Confederation of African Football for all their support, and I promise to keep my refereeing levels up as I concentrate on the future.<\/p>\n<p>In its own statement, Fifa said it was not involved in the immigration processes and was informed by authorities that Artan&#8217;s status &quot;will not be changed at present&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;In line with previous FIFA events, a host government ultimately determines who receives a visa and who is admitted into their country,&quot; the football association said.<\/p>\n<p>Trump suspended the entry of Somali nationals in June 2025, describing the country as a &quot;terrorist safe haven&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>It followed a January executive order, which called on the administration to report which countries had &quot;deficient&quot; vetting and screening information amid a crackdown on immigration.<\/p>\n<p>The entry of people from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Yemen is also suspended.<\/p>\n<p>In its statement, the CBP said all travellers entering the US are subject to a vetting process.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;During processing, the traveller underwent additional inspection, a routine part of CBP\u2019s inspection process when officers need to verify information or determine admissibility,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Following inspection, the traveller, a referee for the FIFA World Cup, was determined to be inadmissible due to vetting concerns and was denied entry.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Admissibility determinations are made on a case-by-case basis using law enforcement, national security, and immigration information available at the time of inspection,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;CBP officers have the authority to question travellers, conduct inspections, and determine admissibility consistent with US law.&quot;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Somali referee, due to officiate at the 2026 World Cup, was subjected to an 11-hour immigration interview before being denied entry to the US, despite holding the &quot;right papers&quot; and &quot;right visa&quot;. Omar Artan, who was due to become the first Somali referee to officiate at a World Cup match, was removed from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":350918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128812],"tags":[151089,143491,140204],"actors":[],"class_list":["post-350917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-itv-news","tag-officiate","tag-referee","tag-somali"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Somali ref says &#039;dream&#039; ruined as he&#039;s banned from entering US for World Cup | News ISC Videos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Watch Somali ref says &#039;dream&#039; ruined as he&#039;s banned from entering US for World Cup for free, here on News ISC. 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