The Trump administration is defending its determination to bar Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan from getting into the US, simply days earlier than the FIFA World Cup, over alleged hyperlinks to a terrorist group. A FIFA spokesperson mentioned in an announcement that the World Cup organizer “is not involved in host country immigration processes.” Artan, who was named Africa’s high male referee in 2025, would have been the primary Somali to referee on the event. NCS’s Larry Madowo experiences.