Somali international referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan waves to supporters while draped in the Somali flag as he is welcomed ahead of a solidarity football match after returning to Somalia in Mogadishu on June 10. Artan, who in 2025 was named men's referee of the year by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), was barred from entering the US on Saturday.
Every four years, dozens of earnest sports anchors look directly into the camera and say: "Football is the universal language."
We’ve all heard this one. It’s the ultimate working-class fairy tale. A kid in a township in Soweto, a lad on a council estate in Liverpool, and some billionaire’s kid in Monaco, all speaking the same beautiful dialect of kicking a piece of leather into a net. No translators. No borders. Just pure, undivided human connection.
It’s lovely. It’s heartwarming. It’s also total bullshit.
Exhibit A – the guy running this entire circus: Gianni Infantino. His name sounds like a brand of expensive nappies for mafiosi babies. He looks like an enormous, bald dildo who just discovered tax havens. He walks around like he’s the Secretary-General of the UN, but with better watches, and more power.
