This marks the second time that the tournament will be played in multiple countries with Japan and South Korea sharing the 2002 edition.

Many of the stadiums have been renamed by FIFA for the duration of the tournament because the companies that paid for the naming rights are not FIFA sponsors.

“I had the right papers and everything,” Omar Abdulkadir Artan said in his first interview since he was turned back. He would have been the first Somali to referee a game in the tournament.

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There is a lot to gripe about. There’s also a lot to like.

© Illustration by Sam Whitney/The New York Times

Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, has unabashedly courted the president’s favor. Soccer officials privately ask, who really benefits?

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Omar Artan was one of 52 referees selected for the FIFA World Cup. But on Saturday he was denied entry because of “vetting concerns,” U.S. officials said.

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