World Cup Politics: Visa Denials for Somali Referee and Iranian Staff

The World Cup has not yet kicked off in the United States, but the politics around it are already in full flow.

Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House Task Force for the World Cup, has defended the decision to deny visas to Somali referee Omar Artan and several members of Iran’s support staff, insisting security concerns must trump sentiment and symbolism.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington, Giuliani set out the numbers first.

“To this point we've had 35 teams that have come into the United States,” he said, stressing that “no players, no coaches have been denied.” The problems, he argued, lie elsewhere. “There have been some officials that have been denied, and for good reason.”

Those “officials” include Artan, a trailblazer in African refereeing. Named men’s referee of the year in 2025 by the Confederation of African Football, he stood on the brink of history as the first Somali to officiate at a World Cup. Instead, his journey ended at Miami airport, where US authorities turned him back.

A US State Department official said the referee was “associated with suspected members of terrorist organisations,” a designation that “made the traveler ineligible for admission to the United States.” No further evidence was made public, but the accusation alone was enough to close the door.

For Somalia, a country on the travel ban list introduced under President Donald Trump as part of a wider immigration crackdown, the episode cuts deep. For FIFA and the refereeing fraternity, it removes a high-profile official from the tournament on the eve of the biggest assignment of his career.

Giuliani, son of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, was pressed directly on Artan’s case. He framed the decision as part of a broader security doctrine.

“We're striking that balance between making sure that any bad actors that…try to come into the country under the guise of the World Cup will not get access to the United States,” he said, presenting the refusal as a necessary line in the sand rather than an overreach.

Iran have also felt the weight of that approach. Locked in an ongoing military conflict with the United States, they will play all three of their group games on American soil but have been forced to base their training camp in Mexico. The logistical headache has been compounded by visa issues and ticketing disputes.

The Iranian football federation says its allocation of tickets for supporters has been revoked, cutting off a key channel for fans hoping to follow the team in person. It also claims some members of the team’s support staff were denied entry.

Giuliani pushed back on any suggestion of a blanket clampdown. “All the Iranian coaching staff is coming in,” he said, before drawing a sharper line. There are “some Iranian officials that are not coming in – again for very good reason.”

He declined to spell out those reasons. “I can't get into the particulars,” he said, but added a pointed caveat: “There are some people that claim that they are coaches that may not be coaches.”

Behind that remark lies the core of Washington’s concern. The administration wants to keep the World Cup open to players, coaches and genuine officials, while closing the door firmly on anyone it believes is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or other sanctioned entities.

Giuliani said President Trump’s priority is a “level playing field” for all teams, on and off the pitch, but only up to a point. The United States, he insisted, will ensure 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.”

Tournament security, he added, currently sits in a relatively calm place. There are “no credible threats” to the World Cup at present, according to Giuliani, though he stressed that the intelligence community has “tripled down” on monitoring and will stay locked in “between now and whenever the final goal is scored on July 19.”

The message is clear: the United States wants this World Cup, but only on its terms. For Omar Artan, and for those Iranian officials and supporters left on the outside, that line has already been drawn in the most brutal way possible.