Kenyan referee among 13 African officials named for historic FIFA Club World Cup 2025

Kenyan referee Stephen Yiembe who has been selected to officiate at the FIFA Club World Cup.

Kenyan referee among 13 African officials named for historic FIFA Club World Cup 2025

Evans Ousuru 11:55 - 15.04.2025

Kenyan referee privileged to officiate at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 in North America.

Kenyan referee Yiembe Stephen will be among the 117 officials who will officiate at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025.

Yiembe, who is an experienced referee, will make his debut in the inaugural competition as an assistant referee, slated for between  June 14 to July 13 across 12 stadiums in 11 Host cities in the United States.

According to Inside FIFA, 35 referees, 58 assistant referees, and 24 video match officials – from 41 member associations will take charge of the matches.

It will be the third major tournament for Yiembe in a span of two years after he made his debut at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in the Ivory Coast.

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The Nakuru-born referee teamed up with compatriot Gilbert Cheruiyot as they officiated the Tunisia-Namibia game at the AFCON 2023.

Yiembe was among the 89 officials to officiate at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games where he was again an assistant referee and was joined by Ismail Mahmood Ali from Sudan, Djibouti’s Ahmed Liban and Ugandan Shamira Nabadda as the only match officials selected from East Africa.

Yiembe previously officiated the AFCON U23 final between Morocco and Egypt in July 2023.

Commenting on the appointment of Team One, the chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina said: "As every new competition starts, the selected referees are among those who have the privilege to be part of this for the first time, so I’m sure that all the match officials will be thrilled.”

“We are coming from high standard performances delivered during the last FIFA tournaments. So the bar is higher, and when you get the bar higher, it’s more difficult to keep the standard."

Among the teams to qualify for the 2025 Club World Cup are Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester City, Monterrey, Seattle Sounders and Al-Hilal. Others are Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Porto, Borussia Dortmund, Benfica, PSG, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, RB Salsburg Club Leon, Pachuca and Auckland City.

The tournament will comprise 32 teams

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