Point of order: I don’t think I’ve blamed racism specifically or even used that word. In this case, if anything I think it’s a prejudice / bias / excessive scrutiny against his national origin, not his race. Maybe your comment is also a response to others in this thread who have blamed racism, but I wanted to clarify my position.
Fair enough, I was responding more to the assertions that to ban a Somalian is racist. That said, there is a reason why Somalia has been subjected to extra scrutiny over the past 30 years now and that is because it has a barely functioning government.
I don’t know. How many of those were coming temporarily as participants in major international sporting events hosted by the United States?
I have to think that FIFA has a law firm or firms assisting teams and officials with their immigration paperwork. It's probably run through whatever Blue Chip legal firm represents FIFA. These firms are adept at running traps and paperwork in places like NY, London, Doha, Berlin, Tokyo, etc, but run into difficulty when you are dealing with immigration work outside of the global trade centers. I worked for a large multinational at one point and was involved in the global sourcing of our workforce. Our blue chip firm totally screwed up some immigration paperwork involving a team coming in from a developing country. It took a year to get fixed and straightened out. Oh, and the project lead flew them in anyways on a B visa which then created more issues and put our whole system at risk of being shut down by the USG. Also, if I had to guess, FIFA's best immigration people were focused on teams and less focused on referees.
In the eyes of a border control or consular affairs official, what makes the referee any more or less deserving than any other individual?
I would have thought, too. But it's dawned on me during this discussion that I never heard about, say, the process Geiger & co. went through to get to Russia. I'm just always assumed this, but never actually heard anything in detail. But I am pretty sure that the delegations are individually reponsible for their travel and documents. Maybe FIFA helps out to smooth some things over or has a central focal coordinating point. But I know I have heard each federation handles its own travel. So that's the thing. Maybe referees are more on their own than you and I would presume?
*sigh* https://bsky.app/profile/cboehm.bsky.social/post/3mnv2eek4dk22 This, being reposted by a MLSsosccer.com writer, who should know better.
Like players, they are an integral part of an international sports event that the host country made certain commitments regrading access for the duration of the tournament. The question is what are those commitments as regards officials?
You can’t be serious. Or you haven’t thought about it very much. He’s a VIP who has been specifically invited by FIFA, the organization that has been in close, direct cooperation with the US government for hosting the biggest sporting event of human history, of which Artan will be an active, ‘on-field’ participant with all sorts of special access. He’s surely at a bare minimum one of the top 10 most famous Somali people alive. Maybe even the most famous. So no, this is not a normal Somali tourist trying to travel to the country. There should be a special effort made to make sure he can be at the tournament, much more so than any normal Somali citizen. He should only have been barred if it was clear he was a genuine safety concern.
This is indeed what I was wondering. Surely FIFA gives *some* guidance about how to travel, especially when going to a country that is currently one of the epicenters of geopolitical turmoil.
I’ll stick up here for someone who has been a reliable reporter for a couple of decades. Why is it not a legitimate question? This isn’t the Iranian national team, which couldn’t do the “just stay in Canada” route because they could potentially advance to a game in the USA.
1) You obviously have never dealt with consular affairs officers in far off distant countries. 2) Sure, he is a VIP for FIFA coming for a big global event - an event that I am sure the State Department has been working with FIFA and their lawyers to make sure that the State Department knows who the priority people are. And the key is if they have done their work, then he should have the proper visa and passport. If he hasn't, then it doesn't matter if he is a VIP or not. The time to reach out to the State Department for help as a "VIP" is well before stepping on the plane. When an individual who is coming here to referee a FIFA event walks off the plane with a diplomatic passport it doesn't matter whether he is a VIP or not. He has the wrong passport and wrong paperwork to enter the United States to referee and at that point, he really isn't any more important to that CBP officer than any other person trying to enter who has the wrong documents. Heck at that point they will likely be more suspicious. They will ask him why he is trying to enter on a diplomatic passport and if he says well I am here to referee they will say, well that has nothing to do with being a diplomat. If he then says well, I tried to do it the right way, then the CBP officer is going to make some calls and check what the databases say and see that he didn't get the proper visa for whatever reason is stated in the records and they are going to send him back.
I would like to think with all of their money FIFA would be doing something to help the referees, but maybe not. Would love to hear even on background what some of our FIFA's say about how their travel is managed.
The referee training camp was held in Miami and was always going to be held in Miami. The referees are based there for the duration of the tournament and travel from Miami to their match destination before heading back to Miami. I don't know how any of that can be waived or changed for one single referee.
Because all he had to do is make a quick call to any high level referee and ask that question and he would have been told, because the referees are all gathering at one location in the US for training and prep work. His writing this is no different than some random person on social media. As a journalist, shouldn't he be anticipating these questions and seeking answers to them rather than just floating them out there?
Its a legitimate question, that I'd expect a writer with somebody like MLS to be able to actually get answers to and then provide that context. If I can figure out reading this forum (over years) why this wouldn't work why can't Boehm call somebody and PRO and ask the question before feeding the social media beast?
This probably doesn't answer the question, but most nations allow "tourists" to travel into their country for a short period of time without having to obtain a visa. WC qualifying stints for a refere might last a week, at most. Say an American referee were headed to Belize for a World Cup qualifying assignment (or Carribbean Cup), that referee could likely enter Belize and stay up to 30 days without declaring any intention of why he/she is in the country. That's the allowance as a US citizen. Travel to Portugal for US citizens is available for 90 days without a visa. There may be some differences if you're working in Belize, for example, but this is to try and explain the difference between a 4-day stay in Belize as an American vs. a 2-month stay in Miami as a Somali.
The reporting all seems to agree that he *had* a visa (which are issued by the State Department). So this seems to have been a decision by CBP at the port of entry. It’s not clear to me why he would be traveling on a diplomatic passport if he had a visa, which makes me question whether the diplomatic passport excuse is true. Notably, that’s not the reason the government spokesman gave
Sir, A verified former "Most Beautiful Woman in the World" is the most famous Somalian alive. I'd like you to google Iman. She's a verified only one name needed type in the vein of Prince, Oprah, Michael (Jordan or Jackson), etc. And she propped up David Bowie for 20-something years so she's legit. I write this in jest but yes, Iman was that bigtime. @MassachusettsRef Since FIFA moved on from Artan after he was denied entry into the USA, is there a 'replacement' referee that will assume his position on the list? Or will the other 4th officials be stretched to fill his role? I'm just thinking there's gotta be a "standby list" akin to what you'd see at a regular weekend tournament in middle America where's someone's waiting around for a ref to go down or no-show. That's be hilarious if true.
I cannot imagine there would be any backfilling here. If Artan really was "just" a reserve, well, that burden can be shared. You can stretch the other reserves to do an "extra" match here or there. You can also call non-reserves in to be fourths on a few occasions (which was standard practice until all of a sudden it wasn't). It sucks for Artan, but Artan not being there is no big deal. It's the same as someone arriving, having the flu or tearing a muscle, and being unable to work. Contingencies and flexibility are built in. The only tangible change I could see from this--and it would be very hard to discern if it happens--is that CAF referees get treated a little better and rewarded or pushed in places they might not otherwise be, as compensation for the political loss here. Given the expanded tournament format and the simple fact that performance is often in the eye of the beholder, I need to stress that would be very, very difficult to discern. If an African referee ends up doing a QF or a very big R16 game, will it be on merit or merit plus CAF being "owed one?"
Thanks for the quick response. Would this African referee to do the biggest game would likely be Ghorbal? Maybe the better question is how are the CAF referees ranked currently? Also, now that we're off the Artan passport thing, did Faghani coming from Australia make him less likely to have problems getting into the USA even though he's Iranian? I see he's listed on official FIFA documentation as representing Australia, not Iran. Just curious as he was listed under Iran in 2022 Qatar.
@Mikael_Referee is going to have the better answer here. On paper or by long-term FIFA pedigree, it's Ghorbal, sure. My instinct is that it's not going to actually be Ghorbal in practice at the tournament, though. I thought I had read somewhere last week that Faghani's paperwork came through. There was some sort of reporting or post on it. So it seems like he was waiting awhile, too (though maybe the content was sensationalized and he wasn't?). Maybe everyone was waiting awhile, which goes back to the fundamental question of what role FIFA plays in the visa process once they name the referees in April. Two other relevant points. First, Faghani was in the US last year for the CWC; that has to matter insofar as vetting or other issues go. Second, Faghani is a FIFA referee via the Australian FA now. He represents Australia, yes. Whether or not he has an Australian passport and/or he's relinquished Iranian citizenship is not something I know with certainty (though, I seem to recall reading somewhere that he kept his Iranian citizenship/passport). Either way, who he represents for FIFA probably is irrelevant for immigration authorities; it's what passport he holds.