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French sports journalist Tomás Goubin reported on Tuesday that U.S. authorities denied the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) he needed for a stopover in the United States during his return journey from Mexico City to Paris at the end of the 2026 World Cup.
Goubin, a resident of Guadalajara since 2009 and a contributor to media outlets such as L'Équipe, France Football, and Eurosport, stated that he did not receive any official explanation regarding the reasons for the denial.
The situation was revealed by the reporter himself on the social media platform X, where he expressed his surprise at the decision and lamented the economic consequences it could have for his travel plans.
"I was denied entry by the United States for a simple stopover on my return journey from Mexico City to Paris, after the World Cup. It's nothing serious, although I will have to cover the expenses, but this confirms that we have not yet seen the end of unpleasant surprises. Pure and undeniable arbitrariness," he wrote.
In the same thread, the journalist shared several hypotheses in which he attempted to find an explanation for what happened.
"An anti-Trump post? A trip to Cuba, that enormous terrorist power, in 2014? Before this rejection, I had to go to the U.S. about twenty times for work between 2011 and 2019," he commented.
So far, U.S. immigration authorities have not provided details regarding the reasons for the denial of the ESTA.
The reference to Cuba has attracted attention because the trip mentioned by Goubin took place in 2014, several years before Washington reintegrated the island into the list of state sponsors of terrorism and tightened immigration restrictions related to those who have visited Cuban territory.
Currently, citizens of the countries included in the Visa Waiver Program who have traveled to Cuba after January 12, 2021, cannot use the ESTA system and must apply for a conventional visa to enter the United States.
However, there is no evidence that the denial experienced by Goubin is related to his visit to Cuba or to any social media post. Both explanations were suggested by the journalist himself as possible hypotheses in light of the lack of official information.
The case occurs in a context of increasing attention to U.S. immigration policies and their effects on international travelers, especially when administrative decisions are made without the applicants being informed of the specific reasons for the rejection.
"We are privileged compared to citizens of countries deemed suspicious by the United States," Goubin added in his post, reflecting on the difficulties travelers from different nationalities face in accessing the North American country.
For now, the French journalist still does not know what motivated the decision of the U.S. authorities, a mystery that has sparked debate among social media users and European travelers familiar with the ESTA system.
This Tuesday, it was also reported that Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan, who would have been the first Somali to officiate in the final stages of a World Cup, was excluded from the tournament after being denied entry to the U.S. despite having, according to his own words, "all the paperwork in order and the correct visa." FIFA confirmed his exclusion and clarified that it does not participate in the host country's immigration processes.
Since January 2026, the U.S. has imposed total visa restrictions on 19 countries and partial restrictions on another 20, including Cuba and Venezuela. According to data from April 2024, over 300,000 European citizens have had their access to the ESTA restricted after traveling to Cuba, a figure that illustrates the real impact of a policy that, in Goubin's case, is even applied to trips taken over a decade ago.
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