Fifa and Gianni Infantino have questions to answer after the scandalous treatment of Omar Abdulkadir Artan
· Yahoo Sports
At the core of the 2026 World Cup’s most telling controversy so far, it’s too easy to forget the human cost.
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Celebrated referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan has had “the biggest dream of my life” destroyed at point of entry, after years of working to get here. That he would have been the first Somali to officiate at the World Cup adds an extra element of poignancy, especially with the way Fifa talks about its work for African football.
Many Iranian staff meanwhile don’t get to stand with their players at an emotionally testing moment for the team, having also been denied entry.
Iraq striker Aymen Hussein was made to go through the ordeal of hours of questioning on his arrival in Chicago, as the Senegal and Uzbekistan teams went through heavy security checks in-country.
And all this before scores of fans get here, amid a related story of how Iranian fans had ticket allocations revoked.
Again, it’s easy to forget that this is a mere football competition that countries actively want to host because of its virtue as a genuine global party.
Such stories just don’t make it feel like that, and it should be constantly stressed that the tournament has never seen anything like this before. The “World Cup in nothing but name”, as one insider said. There have never previously been visa issues like this. Should the World Cup really be held somewhere that doesn’t seem to want the participants that will always be part of it?
Omar Abdulkadir Artan would have been the first Somali to referee at a World Cup (AP)It is scandalous it has got to this, and so close to the start. How was Artan even made to come all the way to the point of arrival? It is remarkable to say that police states like Qatar and Russia were infinitely more welcoming.
Sportswashing intentions aside, that is ultimately because of a series of contractual provisions that are necessary to even host Fifa events, especially “government guarantees” about “visas, permits, immigration, check-in procedures”. It is described by senior insiders as “always the most fundamental part of a hosting contract”.
That the global governing body is trying to wash its hands of such responsibilities now – as it insists it is “not involved in host country immigration processes, including visa adjudications” – says so much about this World Cup and what it has become.
You only have to consider what Fifa president Gianni Infantino himself has said.
In 2017: “It’s obvious when it comes to Fifa competitions, any team, including the supporters and officials of that team, who qualify for a World Cup need to have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup.”
Iran are still scheduled to play all three of their group games in the United States (Getty)And only last year: “It’s important to clarify this. There is a lot of misconception out there. Everyone will be welcome in Canada, Mexico and the United States for the Fifa World Cup next year.”
It appears that it was only Infantino responsible for any kind of misconception, and it may well be a miscalculation with more grave consequences.
For one, the unequal treatment of certain teams may affect the course of the very tournament. Senegal have been cast as a very good outsider. Iran could meet the hosts in the last 16. They are now playing with disadvantages.
The issue also comes at a moment when multiple sources talk of national associations being pressed upon to issue letters of support for Infantino to serve another term as president.
That is even before the start of a World Cup singularly anchored to him like none before and now fraught with difficulties, that could yet serve to expose aspects of his presidency.
The biggest question is what the point of so much obsequiousness towards Donald Trump was. Was it not precisely for issues like this? Instead, Fifa has received proper help on almost nothing.
Even the official stance about not being involved in host country processes smacks of the same cravenness. It is an approach that has been described by various senior football figures as “obtuse”, “bad faith” and - in one case - “horses**t”.
Gianni Infantino’s obsequiousness towards Donald Trump appears to have been worthless (Getty)That is principally because it represents such a contrast from a very recent precedent. In 2023, Indonesia denied the Israeli team entry for the under-20 World Cup and were promptly stripped of the hosting rights. Fifa then used the comparatively nebulous justification of “current circumstances”.
It cuts a very different tone to the arguments of Fifa sources over Monday and Tuesday, that Fifa would never have the power to overrule the lawful ruling of a host country’s government and no one would want them to have that power.
Such a framing conveniently evades the reality that this isn’t about cause and effect and response. The free movement of participants is supposed to be facilitated out of Fifa’s long-term relationship with the hosts – and there has never been a relationship that has been as publicly strong as that between Infantino and Trump.
The most damning aspect for Fifa is that so much of this had long been flagged, in a manner that meant Infantino should really have been working intensively on it. The success of his tournament is dependent on it after all.
Trump called immigrants from Somalia ‘garbage’ just days before receiving the Fifa Peace Prize (Getty)The Trump administration long advertised its attitude to certain countries. Executive Order 13769 was even referred to as “the Muslim ban”.
Three days before receiving a Fifa Peace Prize, Trump said that Somalia “stinks and is “no good for a reason”, while describing immigrants from that country as “garbage”.
Artan is Somalian, and has since told the New York Times: “I think they have a problem with my country”.
So, what was Infantino actually doing in all those meetings with Trump? What was the point?
It seems evident that the contractual guarantees weren’t secured. This despite Fifa figures talking of Infantino as being on the level of a head of state, and better equipped than almost anybody to mediate in crises like Israel-Palestine. If that’s the case, then where was his diplomatic weight here? He couldn’t even get his tournament’s most basic provisions.
Infantino now faces major problems with his own tournament (Getty)And even if you take Fifa’s response at face value, do they not have any position on their World Cup being significantly disrupted? Are they not concerned about the denial of visas to participants? Are they concerned it could affect their tournament? Do they have any position on this at all, given Infantino makes such grand claims about the sport uniting the world?
These questions have been put to Fifa.
Infantino is due to give his customary pre-World Cup press conference on Wednesday afternoon. How he takes questions will be instructive, but the entire controversy already speaks volumes.
Fifa are forgetting their own rules. They are forgetting what the World Cup is actually supposed to be about. The Trump administration doesn’t seem to have ever known.