Land of the Free (Terms and Conditions Apply)

By Sam Cooper

With the 2026 Fifa World Cup having kicked off in the past few days, sadly it is events that have happened off the pitch that have grabbed headlines, rather than individual stories and moments of brilliance that have happened on it. Take the case of Omar Artan who was named Africa’s best referee in 2025, but despite his impressive record he was denied entry into the USA solely on the basis of being Somali. Whilst some MAGA-aligned outlets, notably Fox News, have stated that this was due to “ties to terror suspects” they have failed to produce any valid facts that confirm this. Unfortunately, this story is one of a myriad of microcosms that suggest something far more sinister about the current state of the ‘Land of the Free’.

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To understand why this matters beyond sport, noting two key points is crucial. Firstly, that the USA wanted to host the FIFA World Cup, and also that the USA didn’t want Omar Artan to be in it. It is at the fault line between these two truths that are indicative of the hypocrisy and menace that have become synonymous with American politics.

The very act of hosting the World Cup comes with a set of expectations that even previous, no less corrupt, nations (take Russia and Qatar) have adhered to. It is a declaration that the country is open to all, and proud to welcome the world. Alongside its co-hosts Canada and Mexico, Washington has marketed it accordingly, refurbishing stadiums and mobilising soft-power diplomacy to project an image that one would usually associate with any other host nation for any global sporting event. But scratch beneath the surface, the contrary becomes evident. Even FIFA, which itself is hardly a beacon of principle, expressed its regret at Artan’s exclusion from the USA, and even ensured that he gets paid the full fee and will officiate the upcoming UEFA Supercup between PSG and Aston Villa.

The Trump administration’s travel ban, of which Somalia is one of forty countries whose citizens face heavy restrictions on entry, does not make exceptions for referees who are at the top of their game. A U.S. official speaking anonymously declared that Artan had “association with suspected members of terror organisations”. Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House’s FIFA Task Force, proclaimed that the denial was for “very good reason”, with both declining to elaborate or produce concrete evidence. Artan himself was questioned for hours about militant groups before being turned away and was never told a precise reason why. It is not difficult to read between the lines.

Whilst every nation does have a right to control its own borders, it is the collision of narratives and responsibilities that this case presents that highlights the growing injustice within the world’s most powerful nation. Washington insists that that it has the right to host the largest and most inclusive, and most valuable sporting event in the world, whilst also denying entry to one of the key components of a Football tournament that make it run: A referee. Refusing entry to an internationally recognised official from an African Muslim-majority nation on a premise that it will not care to explain is the crux of the story.

What it represents is the central division that shapes American political life today. The United States of America was a country founded on shared principles defined not by ethnicity nor religion, but rather by openness, aspiration, and participation. However, on the other side of the coin is an America that believes itself to be a gated community with a particular character to protect, one where white Christian nationalist culture takes priority over any other. This America makes a poor attempt to disguise hostility and xenophobia as an obligation for security. Such dehumanising rhetoric that has been deployed by Trump and his underlings has shaped an institutional and societal culture where the absurd becomes the norm. It marks a departure from how America has previously understood itself, with anyone able to participate in the American way of life and even become American. This America seems lost to the annals of history.

Artan returned to Mogadishu and thousands of his compatriots as a hero, not due to what he had achieved, but rather what he represented and what had been done to him. His career will survive MAGA, but the central question is whether America’s reputation will. As hundreds of thousands of immigrants sailed into New York in the past centuries, they saw the Statue of Liberty, and on the statue proclaims; “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses”, but it is this same country that has spent the previous decade silently removing the plaque from its door. This is what it looks like when a country decides its fears take priority over its enshrined values. The Land of the Free, as it turns out, comes with conditions.