2026 World Cup: "We don’t control everything" (Gianni Infantino, FIFA)

"What happened to Omar (Abdulkadir Artan), the referee from Somalia (who was turned away on arrival in the United States on 6 June 2026 despite having been selected by FIFA to referee during the tournament), is unfortunate. But we don’t control everything," Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, said at the press conference held in Mexico City (MEX) on 10 June 2026 on the eve of the kick-off of the 2026 World Cup (Mexico - South Africa at the Estadio Azteca, kick-off at 21:00 CET).

"We always try to find solutions. Always. But we’re not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces. We are a sports organisation, we try to do our best with the means that we have to make as much as possible," the Italian-Swiss leader added during a 30-minute introduction before taking questions from journalists.

"An operation like the World Cup is 5,000 staff members of FIFA, 50,000 volunteers, 17,000 media representatives, 300,000 accredited personnel. We have 500 official sites (stadiums, security, transportation, hotels training camps...). All this requires a lot of work. You…