Stephen Yiembe will be the sole Kenyan to officiate at the FIFA Club World Cup. Assistant referee Yiembe was among the list of the 117 match officials – 35 referees, 58 assistant referees and 24 video match officials – from 41 member associations will take charge of the matches.
FIFA Club World Cup 2025 will take place from 14 June to 13 July across 12 stadiums in 11 Host Cities in the United States.
The officials were picked from across the 6 FIFA confederations by the FIFA Referees Committee.
Commenting on the appointment of the referees the chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina, said that it would be a “privilege” for those chosen to officiate at the very first edition of the FIFA Club World Cup.
“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. But we are working very hard and the referees picked will make a solid contribution to the success of this exciting competition.”
“I like to compare the preparation of a football team and a referee team because both need to work hard and deliver to the highest standards,” noted FIFA Director of Refereeing Massimo Busacca.
“We try to find as much uniformity and consistency as possible in what we are doing because football is the same everywhere, but we know that we have to understand the different mentality in football, and this is crucial.”
In line with the changes to the Laws of the Game approved by The International Football Association Board (The IFAB), FIFA will implement new rules designed to cut down on time-wasting by goalkeepers.
If a goalkeeper holds the ball for longer than eight seconds (with the referee using a visual five-second countdown), the referee will award a corner kick to the opposing team.
In addition, following The IFAB’s support for FIFA’s undertaking to test body cameras worn by match officials to identify possible future use and develop quality and safety standards, referees will be equipped with body cameras on a trial basis at the FIFA Club World Cup. The live footage from these cameras will be made available to fans across the world.
“We think that it is a good chance to offer the viewers a new experience, in terms of images taken from a perspective, from an angle of vision, which was never offered before,” said Mr Collina, emphasising that it was a trial. “It also has a purpose in terms of referee coaching because, of course, having the possibility to see what the referee sees is important in the debriefing, to evaluate how the call was made by the referee. So, it’s a combination of a new experience for broadcasters and also for coaching purposes.“
