Somali referee banned by US to officiate European Super Cup, UEFA says

2 hours ago 6

Omar Artan was named among lucifer officials for 2026 World Cup but volition miss the tourney aft US refuses him entry.

Published On 11 Jun 2026

Somali referee Omar Artan, who was denied entry to the United States for the World Cup, has been named to officiate UEFA’s Super Cup, European football’s governing assemblage announced.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin poured praise connected the Somali referee successful a connection released connected Thursday, a fewer hours earlier planetary assemblage FIFA’s flagship World Cup kicks off.

Recommended Stories

list of 4 items

end of list

“Omar Artan is an fantabulous young but already experienced referee, who has proven himself astatine the highest contention level of the Confederation of African Football,” said Ceferin.

“Football is made to link people, and UEFA wants to amusement its respect to Omar and his outstanding officiating skills, which had earned him specified a prestigious nomination.”

UEFA said that aft talks with the African confederation, it “has contiguous appointed Somali referee Omar Artan to officiate the 2026 UEFA Super Cup” connected August 12 successful Salzburg, Austria, betwixt Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain and Europa League winners Aston Villa.

Artan’s lawsuit has been 1 of galore incidents to taint the run-up to FIFA’s World Cup.

UEFA said Artan’s assignment came successful the model of an accord betwixt UEFA and CAF to promote cooperation.

“UEFA and CAF are agreed by a shared committedness to processing shot astatine each levels and promoting the halfway values of unity, equality and non-discrimination,” it said.

CAF President Patrice Motsepe said Artan had “made Somalia and the full radical of the African continent highly proud”.

“His receipt of the CAF men’s referee of the twelvemonth grant 2025 and his assignment arsenic a referee of the FIFA World Cup 2026 are a designation of his world-class refereeing quality and the planetary respect that helium enjoys.”

His assignment to referee the Super Cup “is a large honour for Omar Artan and for African referees and is besides an fantabulous illustration of football, bringing unneurotic and uniting radical from Africa and Europe and worldwide”, Motsepe said.

Artan was barred from entering the US connected Saturday aft arriving astatine Miami International Airport.

A US State Department authoritative told the AFP quality bureau that the referee was “associated with suspected members of violent organisations”, truthful “making the traveller ineligible for admittance to the United States”.

FIFA besides confirmed that helium would nary longer beryllium portion of the World Cup.

Artan’s assignment to the 52-strong roster of referees for the finals successful Canada, Mexico and the US had been a immense root of pridefulness for his compatriots.

He returned to a hero’s invited successful Mogadishu connected Wednesday and pledged to instrumentality portion successful the adjacent World Cup successful 2030.

The FIFA World Cup begins connected June 11. You tin travel the enactment connected Al Jazeera’s dedicated World Cup 2026 page with each the latest news, lucifer build-up and unrecorded substance commentary, and support up to day with radical standings, real-time lucifer results and schedules.

*** Disclaimer: This Article is auto-aggregated by a Rss Api Program and has not been created or edited by Bdtype.

(Note: This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News Rss Api. News.bdtype.com Staff may not have modified or edited the content body.

Please visit the Source Website that deserves the credit and responsibility for creating this content.)

Watch Live | Source Article