The head of the White House Task Force for the World Cup on Tuesday defended the decision not to grant visas to a Somali referee and some support staff for the Iranian team.

“To this point we’ve had 35 teams that have come into the United States,” Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the task force, said at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington.

“No players, no coaches have been denied,” Giuliani said. “There have been some officials that have been denied, and for good reason.”

“We’re striking that balance between making sure that any bad actors that…try to come into the country under the guise of the World Cup will not get access to the United States,” he added.

Giuliani, the son of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, was asked specifically about the decision to bar Somali referee Omar Artan from entering the country.

Artan, who in 2025 was named men’s referee of the year by the Confederation of African Football, would have been the first Somali to referee at a World Cup.

“While I can’t go into the details, what I can tell you, high level, is it was for a very good reason,” Giuliani said of Artan, who was turned back at Miami airport.