World Cup Embarrassment

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!