The World Cup,
arguably the biggest sporting event in the world (either this or the summer
Olympics) begins today. I considered writing a World Cup preview (my
previews from 2010, 2014, and 2018 were amazing and still hold up today!) or asking for World Cup
predictions (like I did in 2022), but I'm not for the 2026 edition. Basically,
while having 48 teams may make the tournament more enjoyable by having more
countries like Cape Verde and Curacao participate, does anyone believe that
teams like Haiti will keep a match close against Brazil? The group stage is
somewhat pointless since 32 teams will advance to the knock-out rounds. I tend
to think we're going to see a lot of chalk. Favorites like Spain, France,
Argentina, England, and Brazil are going to be there at the end. With so many
rounds as a result of the additional 16 teams, I expect that one of these
countries that have the most depth will win.
I’ve mentioned
multiple times on this blog that with the exception of about 5-6 years in the
late 90s and early 2000s, I’ve been a soccer referee since I was 14. While I
never worked high school, college, or professional adult games, I've worked
some high level youth games over the years. Now, I prefer working travel and
recreational games for kids in the 10-14 age range. I can still keep up with
them, but I also like teaching and explaining the rules/laws of the game. Plus, with
this age group, I get to work with some newer referees, and I enjoy being a
mentor and providing advice and suggestions.
Where am I
going with this? When I watch the World Cup, I can’t help but watch the
referees too. Their positioning, their calls, their body language. I was never
on track to become a professional referee, let alone one who got to the World
Cup, so I have great admiration for World Cup referees. It's an incredible
honor to be selected, and as much as teams/fans will criticize officials, the
referees earned their spots. Basically, FIFA didn't observe my U13 boys'
recreational games last weekend and decide that I should work World Cup
matches.
All of this
brings me to Omar Abdulkadir Artan. While you can read all about Artan's background from this BBC article, since we're in the middle of the NBA and
NHL finals and the World Cup hasn't actually started yet, I'm not sure how
familiar many sports fans are with this name. Artan was going to be the first
referee from Somalia to officiate at the World Cup. He was the 2025
Confederation of African Football referee of the year. This is the entire
African continent, so again, he is significantly more qualified to officiate
the World Cup than me. Artan arrived in Miami earlier this week, which is where
the referee base camp is located. My guess is that there were multiple meetings
and activities planned to finalize preparation for the games. Artan was denied
entry into the United States. This is from CNN:
When asked
about Artan’s case, a US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told CNN
that he underwent additional inspection upon arriving in Miami following a
flight from Istanbul.
“During
processing, the traveler underwent additional inspection, a routine part of
CBP’s inspection process when officers need to verify information or determine
admissibility,” the spokesperson said. “Following inspection, the traveler, a
referee for the FIFA World Cup, was determined to be inadmissible due to
vetting concerns and was denied entry.”
Apparently,
FIFA has no say in this matter. Although FIFA has plenty of its own problems,
this decision was made solely by US authorities, and the host country has final
say on these types of matters.
According to
ESPN:
A United States
official said Tuesday night that Omar Artan, the Somalian soccer referee who
was denied entry into the country ahead of the World Cup, was refused admission
due to "association with suspected members of terror organizations."
The official
spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that is covered by visa
privacy laws.
While it's
certainly possible that Artan has some type of ties with suspected members of
terror organizations, as the kids say, this is sus (that’s short for suspicious
for those unhip folks). I highly doubt that Artan was a last minute replacement
official. FIFA likely assigned the officials weeks if not months before the
World Cup. Which means that FIFA provided names of officials to the US well
before the Cup began. So you’re telling us that the US only learned of Artan’s
so-called terrorist ties when he arrived in Miami and not anytime in the weeks
and months before? Again, sus.
If Artan was
from Germany or Japan or Bosnia and Herzegovina, he would probably be fine.
This is because he’s from Somalia, and I suspect that our government considers
everyone from that country to have ties to terrorists.
Let's say that
Artan does have association with suspected members of terror
organizations. That's an incredible long-game to work your way up to become the
continent's top referee and get invited to the World Cup. And what exactly is
he going to do in America? I suspect that there is tight security surrounding
referees to make sure no one approaches them, due to suspected threats
involving match-fixing and gambling. Is Artan going to leave his hotel and skip
his match to do some type of scouting of potential terrorist attacks? Do
you know how ridiculous this sounds?
Meanwhile,
there has been no media attention given to Christian Pulisic and the strong
possibility of him being a traitor. Sure, Pulisic is the face of US men's
national team, but here he is supporting Sweden.
Don't let the
"red, white, and blue" Swedish fish fool you. It's still SWEDISH
fish. If the US ends up facing Sweden later in the tournament, watch Pulisic
closely for bad passes and maybe an own goal. He'll get a hero's welcome when he moves to Stockholm.
Enjoy the World
Cup matches!
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