{"id":415775,"date":"2026-06-10T08:23:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/?p=415775"},"modified":"2026-06-10T08:23:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:23:30","slug":"somali-soccer-referee-who-was-denied-us-entry-says-what-happened-was-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/2026\/06\/10\/somali-soccer-referee-who-was-denied-us-entry-says-what-happened-was-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Somali soccer referee who was denied US entry says what happened was &#8216;wrong&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Artan was due to be first Somali referee at World Cup<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2018I promise you that I will attend the next one\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The World Cup referee from\u00a0Somalia\u00a0who was denied entry to the United States arrived on Wednesday in Somalia\u2019s capital, Mogadishu, where he was received by a crowd of supporters and officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Omar Artan was due to be the first referee from Somalia to officiate at a World Cup after making Fifa\u2019s final list for the tournament. He is one of Africa\u2019s top referees and was named the continent\u2019s best male referee in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was denied entry at Miami international airport\u00a0on Saturday over \u201cvetting concerns\u201d, US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement without giving details of those concerns. Fifa subsequently cut him from the tournament\u2019s referee list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Artan was issued with a visa to travel to the US last week, according to the Somali embassy in Kenya that processed it. He returned to a hero\u2019s welcome at the airport in Mogadishu and thanked the Somali government and people as well as Fifa for their support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI promise you, God willing, that I will attend the next one,\u201d he said as hundreds of supporters at the airport waved the Somali flag. \u201cI want the Somali public to take comfort in this and remain confident.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The World Cup referee from\u00a0Somalia\u00a0who was denied entry to the United States arrived on Wednesday in Somalia\u2019s capital, Mogadishu, where he was received by a crowd of supporters and officials. Omar Artan was due to be the first referee from Somalia to officiate at a World Cup after making Fifa\u2019s final list for the tournament. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-415775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415776,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415775\/revisions\/415776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}