"Don't stop, regardless of what happens and irrespective of people preventing you from doing your job." Omar Artan said that after being detained and deported from the United States just days before the World Cup kicked off. On Wednesday in Salzburg, he gets to back it up.
The Somali official will take charge of the UEFA Super Cup between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa — becoming the first non-European referee ever to officiate the fixture. It's a historic milestone by any measure, and one that lands with extra weight given what he went through to get here.
What happened in Miami
Artan had already been named one of seven African referees selected by FIFA for the 2026 World Cup. He had a visa. He had assignments. Then US Customs and Border Protection held him for 11 hours at Miami International Airport before deporting him, citing "vetting concerns." A Trump administration official later told CNN the vetting uncovered "derogatory information, including association with suspected members of terror organizations" — a claim that has never been substantiated with any specifics, public or otherwise.
Somalia is one of 39 nations under the Trump administration's travel ban, which places nationals under additional scrutiny regardless of individual circumstances. Artan has never been told exactly what the concern was. Neither has anyone else.
He returned to Mogadishu to a crowd of supporters and gave a public address urging Somalis not to lose hope. Within days, UEFA came calling.
A referee who keeps making history
It would be easy to frame this purely as a redemption arc, but Artan's résumé doesn't need the narrative boost. He was the first Somali referee at an Africa Cup of Nations (2023), the first to take charge of a CAF Champions League final (2025), and the first to win CAF Men's Referee of the Year (2025). The World Cup selection wasn't a sympathy pick — it was the logical next step for one of African football's most decorated officials.
For Wednesday's match, he'll be assisted by Djibouti's Liban Ahmed and Kenya's Stephen Yiembe, a nod to a broader UEFA-CAF cooperation agreement signed earlier this year. It's a small detail, but it signals that this isn't a one-off gesture from UEFA — there's structural intent behind it.
PSG vs Aston Villa is a genuinely interesting Super Cup matchup, with both sides coming off strong European campaigns. The referee's job won't be straightforward. But if Artan's record across CAF competitions is anything to go by, that's precisely the kind of stage he's built for.
His next shot at a men's World Cup is 2030 — Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Assuming the border stays open.
