SALZBURG, Austria -- Saturday, June 6, 2026, is a date that will be forever etched into Omar Artan's memory. On his 34th birthday, the referee boarded a plane to the United States, where he was set to become the first Somali to officiate at a FIFA World Cup.
It was supposed to be the culmination of a journey that had started in Somalia's war-torn capital, Mogadishu, where he took up refereeing on neighborhood pitches after suffering an injury that curtailed his playing ambitions at a young age. But rather than fulfilling his dream of representing Africa in North America, Artan was questioned for 11 hours by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials at Miami International Airport. Despite possessing a diplomatic passport and a valid visa, he was turned away and sent home.
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Yet what started out as heartbreak for Artan set in motion a remarkable chain of events that culminated in him taking charge of the match which raises the curtain on the new season for Europe's elite clubs. Under the lights at the Red Bull Arena in Salzburg on Wednesday, he led out Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain and Europa League winners Aston Villa for the UEFA Super Cup.
Artan played a crucial role, too, allowing play to continue when PSG's Désiré Doué beat the offside trap and scored what proved to be the winning goal for the European champions. "It's really super he was able to referee this big match," Doué told ESPN after the game, adding: "I'm so happy for him."
Somali referee Omar Artan was denied entry to the U.S. for the World Cup. Two months later, he was in charge for the UEFA Super Cup between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa Sebastian Widmann - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images Rapid rise Omar Artan did not set out to be a referee. As a youngster he harbored hopes of making it as a player, but those ambitions were ended by a leg injury. The door to an alternative career in soccer opened at a local game when the two teams asked Artan to step in and officiate. He has been refereeing ever since.
The precarious security situation at home -- Somalia has been locked in a state of civil war for decades -- posed considerable challenges for Artan's fledgling refereeing career. He told Al Jazeera ahead of the World Cup: "There was times when I was going to training, there was a lot of explosions in the road, then I have to change course and then come to the stadium."