Out of bounds: Trump’s immigration games are spoiling the 2026 World Cup

The 2026 FIFA World Cup has just begun, but it has already produced its defining image — not a goal, not a save, but a referee turned away at Miami International Airport and sent back to Istanbul.

Omar Artan, Africa’s top referee in 2025 — FIFA-accredited, visa in hand — was barred from entering the U.S. because he carries a Somali passport. No specific reason was given. None was needed. Somalia is on President Trump’s travel ban list, and that was enough. 

This was not an isolated incident. It was the visible tip of a pattern. 

Iran’s national team spent the weeks before the tournament training in Tijuana, Mexico, because U.S. visa delays left its coaching staff stranded. Iranian fans are effectively banned from attending matches on U.S. soil. Iran boycotted the World Cup draw in Washington after its delegation was denied visas.

Out of 150 Ghanaian fans who applied for World Cup visas, 147 were rejected. Fans from Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti, Senegal and Iran — all qualifying nations — face travel restrictions that make attending the tournament they earned a bureaucratic lottery rather than a right.

FIFA’s response has been characteristically spineless. Its statement on Artan merely confirmed that he “will be unable to train and officiate” and noted that “a host government ultimately determines who receives a visa and who........

© The Hill