Omar Artan: The Referee Barred From the World Cup, Handed Uefa's Biggest Stage
Omar Artan was turned away at Miami International Airport, denied entry to the United States and prevented from refereeing at this summer's World Cup. On Wednesday, he will walk out at the Red Bull Arena in Salzburg to take charge of the Uefa Super Cup between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa.
It is quite a turnaround. Uefa awarded the 34-year-old Somali official the Super Cup assignment days after his exclusion from the World Cup, where he had been selected to officiate. Artan has now spoken publicly for the first time about the experience, describing the refusal of entry and his subsequent appointment to one of European football's showpiece occasions The Guardian.
The Super Cup is Uefa's annual match between the winners of the Champions League and the Europa League — effectively a curtain-raiser for the European season. Artan will become the first non-European referee to officiate it, a milestone that carries its own weight regardless of the circumstances around his arrival.
The reason Artan could not work at the World Cup is rooted in American immigration policy. Somalia is one of 12 countries on a travel ban list introduced by US President Donald Trump the previous year. When Artan arrived in Miami, that list applied to him like it applies to any Somali passport holder.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino suggested he was powerless to overrule the Trump administration on the matter The Guardian. Artan will receive his full World Cup tournament pay despite never blowing a whistle in the country The Guardian.
None of this arrived out of nowhere. Artan has been on FIFA's international referees list since 2018 and was named CAF Men's Referee of the Year in 2025 — the Confederation of African Football's top individual officiating honour Uefa. He prepared for Wednesday's match by refereeing league games in Somalia and in the Kuwaiti Premier League.
He will not be alone in Salzburg. Two African officials will run the lines alongside him: Liban Abdoulrazack Ahmed from Djibouti and Stephen Eleazar Onyango Yiembe from Kenya. Marco Di Bello of Italy will serve as the video assistant referee — the official who reviews key decisions from a screen in the stadium Uefa.
What makes this stand out is the contrast. A referee stopped at a border by a policy that has nothing to do with his performances on the pitch, then given the whistle for a match that places him at the centre of European football's stage. For PSG, for Aston Villa, for the fans watching at home, the story on Wednesday will be about the football. But the man in the middle carries a story of his own, and it started at a passport control desk in Miami.
