White House World Cup task force director Andrew Giuliani defends visa decisions
· Yahoo Sports
DALLAS — The Executive Director of the White House World Cup task force defended the decision to deny the 2025 CAF Men's Referee of the Year entry into the country and said that while the administration isn't at the whims of "soccer guys", it has worked to get necessary personnel into the country for the tournament.
Andrew Giuliani said Sunday, June 14 that there were more than 5 million ESTA approvals – a program allowing citizens of approved countries to be approved for a visa electronically – in the first half of the fiscal year and highlighted countries like Argentina where he said the Trump administration has cut wait time for B-1/B-2 visas from 300 days to two days.
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But last week FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the decision not to admit Omar Artan into the U.S. was "unfortunate" and claimed FIFA had been working in the background to try to resolve the situation. Artan will not referee at the tournament, but will be paid for the work he would've carried out had he been allowed entry.
"More than anything, we can look at all the players that have gotten in that have had visas. Really, really amazing. All the coaches have had visas, so all the play on the field have not been affected," he said when asked by USA TODAY Sports about Artan's situation and FIFA's relationship with the Trump administration. "The one referee you’re referring to, there’s some stuff we can’t talk about but at least stuff that’s come out was that he was talking to some very, very bad people right before he was coming to the United States of America.
"I’ll leave it at that, but what I can tell you is we’re not going to let the guys of a soccer tournament allow bad actors to come to the United States. It’s our mandate to make sure that people have an unbelievable experience, not just in Dallas but all around the country. That means making sure we can account for the people that are coming into the United States."
While Iran players and some staff were granted visas after months of uncertainty, and domestic-based Haiti player Woodensky Pierre was able to join Les Grenadiers' squad despite a travel ban on anyone coming from Haiti, there have been other high-profile cases of visas being rejected and other delays.
Giuliani said the administration wants to "welcome the world. We want people to have a great time here. We want them to see how incredible Texas is, but we also need to make sure we’re not letting the wrong people in.
"Look, we’ve created a lot of legal pathways to be able to get in to the country for these games," he continued. "We’re very excited for them to kick off. I think you’ve seen through five games in the United States, eight games now, that the story has been on the pitch. That’s what we want. We want this to be a great story of what happens on the field, a great story of American exceptionalism."
Speaking before the Netherlands-Japan match in North Texas, Giuliani said security had been a success through the first five matches of the tournament that took place on U.S. soil, with the main concerns focusing on studying how fans are getting into and out of venues and seeing how results may or may not affect behavior on public transportation and in other community areas.
"You have to do this 78 times in 39 days," he said. "For us, from the federal government’s perspective, from federal law enforcement’s perspective, you are stressing law enforcement to the absolute max. We need to make sure we use all the subject matter experts we can to make sure the country is safe."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Andrew Giuliani says Somali referee was talking to very bad people