How Somali Referee World Cup Absence Reflects Wider Global Power Struggles

BusinessSportsMoneyHow Somali Referee World Cup Absence Reflects Wider Global Power StrugglesBySimon Chadwick ,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Professor of AfroEurasian Sport, geopolitical of sport specialist.Follow AuthorJun 11, 2026, 02:08pm EDTJun 11, 2026, 02:09pm EDTWASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 05: U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on December 05, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)Getty ImagesJust days before the World Cup is due to start, Somali referee Omar Artan — voted best referee in Africa for 2025 —can’t enter the United States.U.S. government officials say that they received derogatory information about Artan, which included suspected associations with the militant group Al Shabab.Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by the referee’s exclusion from the U.S.; after all, over the last couple of years, President Donald Trump has described the East African nation as being “a shithole country” whose gangs he characterized as being “foreign terrorist organisations”.Trump has also referred to Somali immigrants as “garbage” who “contribute nothing”, while U.S. armed forces last year targeted militants in multiple airstrikes in Somalia. There are some parallels with the 1966 World Cup, when the host nation, England, initially refused to grant visas to the North Korean squad due to the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries. MORE FOR YOUFootball’s global governing body, FIFA, intervened by threatening to move the tournament, if a qualifying nation was barred entirely. This resulted in a compromise whereby North Korea was allowed to participate, though the use of its national anthem was restricted.FIFA has stepped back from making such interventions today, although the world in 2026 is far more complex and sensitive, with states increasingly using sport for political purposes, es...