“FOR VERY GOOD REASON”
Artan, who in 2025 was named men’s referee of the year by the Confederation of African Football, would have been the first Somali to referee at a World Cup.
He was turned back at Miami’s airport.
Somalia is one of several countries on a travel ban list introduced by President Donald Trump’s administration as part of a broader immigration crackdown.
Iran, who will play their three group games on American soil, were forced to switch their training base to Mexico due to the ongoing military conflict with the US.
The Iranian football federation said on Tuesday that its allocation of tickets for supporters had been revoked and some team support staff were denied visas.
Giuliani said “all the Iranian coaching staff is coming in” but there are “some Iranian officials that are not coming in – again for very good reason”.
He said he “can’t get into the particulars” but “there are some people that claim that they are coaches that may not be coaches”.
Giuliani said Trump wants to make sure that there is a “level playing field” for all of the teams taking part in the World Cup “while also making sure that people that are directly working, let’s say, with the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) have no ability to access the United States of America”.
The White House envoy also said there were currently “no credible threats” to the tournament but the intelligence community is “tripled down” and will continue to monitor the situation “between now and whenever the final goal is scored on July 19”.