Omar Artan will make history in Salzburg by becoming the first non-European to take charge of the Uefa Super Cup. The 34-year-old Somali referee said it will be his first match in Europe, adding another milestone to a career that has kept breaking new ground.
The appointment matters now because it is the latest sign that Artan has moved from one first to the next. He was added to FIFA’s international list of match officials in 2018, became the first Somali to officiate at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2024, and later became the first Somali to oversee a CAF Champions League final. He also received the CAF Men’s Referee of the Year Award 2025, a sequence that helps explain why UEFA and CAF have now trusted him with one of European football’s biggest one-off matches.
Dr Patrice Motsepe called the appointment a great honour for Artan and for African referees, and said it is an excellent example of football bringing people together. Artan himself put the moment in personal terms, saying he is honoured to be appointed for such a huge match and thanking UEFA, the CAF president and everyone at CAF. He also said he is excited by the chance to work in Europe, describing the standard there as fantastic and saying he believes referees from both confederations can learn from one another.
That rise has not been smooth. Artan was selected for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but he was not permitted to enter the United States for the tournament, a setback that underlined how politics can still block a referee’s path even after years of progress. He later said it was a very tough period and that many people sympathised with him after so much work ended in frustration, though he was grateful for the support he received around the world. The reason he could not enter the United States was not explained.
The Uefa Super Cup assignment came within a memorandum of understanding signed at the end of April between UEFA and CAF, a framework meant to strengthen cooperation between the two bodies. For Artan, that cooperation has now delivered the most visible stage of his career so far. He has spent the past decade pushing past boundaries for Somali and African referees; in Salzburg, he will do it again, and this time the line he crosses is the most historic one yet.
