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Top African referee Omar Artan refused access to US and will miss World Cup
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2026
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They are responsible for not having changed venues as soon as it was clear the US was not going to make the world cup a safe event for anyone, from fans, to players, to referees.
They are also responsible for not having dequalified the US when they abused their status as an host country to exclude referees or putting undue hardships on other national teams (especially Iran, but plenty of countries had trouble getting their teams in the US). They are opening the precedent that host countries can tip the scale how much they want without consequences.
It's FIFA. Human rights abuses are just how they operate.
Are you saying Qatar is a sham state that has modern day slavery or am I reading into it too much. /s
Ignoring human rights is par for the course for an oligarch run organisation. Messing with the gambling's integrity is the surprising part.
Did you really expect better from FIFA?
They used to draw the line at open cheating. I guess they just figured out there's no point on keeping any kind of public appearance of propriety.
I'm actually surprised that they're not getting sued by their sponsors. Continuing to keep the event in the US and allowing ticket prices to get out of hand are going to result in fewer attendees. Surely that violates their contract because they will have promised certain attendance levels, which presumably they're now not going to get.
Money don't care about that. People want to watch people chase and kick the ball. Money wants more money.
If people dumb enough to watch people chase around ball, I find it hard to complain about other people taking advantage of that.
Yes people want to watch the football that's why it exists as a sport. If people weren't interested it would be water polo.
Do you watch TV?
Not really very often.
But I do know that a billionaire owns the network and doesn't care about me. I know it is not "my show" and I wont advertise it by wearing clothing for it. I won't base my identity on it.
Most importantly: If a show or even a corporate owner is problematic, I would stop watching and supporting it without a second thought.
I am snarky about this, yes. I would rather play any sport than watch it.
But my real point is that there is a rabid fandom that puts their needs above all else. They are not going to care what the parent company does or what the countries involved do. They are willing to feed the greed at all costs. For this reason, I cannot empathize with them. They don't care, and the people making money most certainly also don't care, because they are still making money.