Artan touched down in the Austrian city on Tuesday, the day before he becomes the first non-European referee to officiate European football’s curtain-raiser. The 34-year-old will lead a mostly African team of match officials out for Wednesday’s fixture at the Red Bull Arena in Salzburg.

His route there has been anything but straightforward. Artan was on FIFA’s original list of match officials for the 2026 World Cup, only to be denied entry to the United States and deported on arrival at Miami International Airport, despite holding a valid visa and having cleared FIFA’s three-year vetting programme.

The Miami incident

Washington offered no public evidence for the decision. An administration official told CBS News that Customs and Border Protection had flagged “derogatory information” during vetting, including “association with suspected members of terror organizations.” Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House’s World Cup task force, defended the deportation in blunter terms.

“In the case of the referee there, he was talking to some very bad people right as he was coming to the United States,” Giuliani told CBS News.

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Pressed for detail, he added that “there’s some classified information we can’t discuss now.”

FIFA quietly removed Artan from its officiating roster shortly afterwards.

First non-European referee

UEFA moved within days. On 11 June the governing body appointed Artan to the Super Cup under a cooperation accord with the Confederation of African Football, making him the first official from outside Europe to take charge of the annual match between the Champions League and Europa League winners.

“Football is made to connect people,” UEFA said in its statement, with president Aleksander Ceferin describing Artan as “an excellent young but already experienced referee” who has “proven himself at the highest competition level.”

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CAF president Patrice Motsepe said the Somali had “made Somalia and the entire people of the African continent extremely proud.” Artan was named CAF’s men’s referee of the year in 2025 and became the first Somali to officiate at the Africa Cup of Nations. He has been on the FIFA international list since 2018.

Artan on the aftermath

Artan has since spoken publicly about the World Cup episode for the first time. He described the weeks after Miami as bruising but said the wave of support had lifted him.

“Many people expressed their sympathy for me, because when you work for many years to achieve a goal and then are ultimately unable to reach it, it is extremely difficult,” Artan told UEFA’s website.

“I am honoured to have been chosen to referee this major match. There is a large Somali community in Europe and Austria, and its members are very excited to see me referee a match like this,” he told French outlet Foot Mercato.

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He will be assisted on Wednesday by Djibouti’s Liban Abdoulrazack Ahmed and Kenya’s Stephen Eleazar Onyango Yiembe, with Italian Marco Di Bello on VAR duty and Slovenia’s Rade Obrenovič the fourth official. PSG, the reigning Champions League holders, face Europa League winners Aston Villa for the first silverware of the European season.

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