Kenyan FIFA Assistant Referee Stephen Yiembe has been appointed to officiate the 2026 UEFA Super Cup. A match, scheduled for August 12 in Salzburg, between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa, marking him the first East African person to officiate in a European fixture.
Yiembe will join Djibouti’s Liban Abourazack referee, who will serve as Assistant Referee 1. Though his appointment comes days after Somali referee Omar Artan, was denied a visa by the United States to officiate a World Cup match, he was also appointed as the official referee for the UEFA Super Cup.
Yiembe has officiated major tournaments, from the Club World Cup to the Paris 2024 Olympics and served as Assistant VAR 2 for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Final between Morocco and Senegal. He also officiated the AFCON U23 final between Morocco and Egypt in July 2023.
Yiembe received a new appointment by signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between UEFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which seeks to strengthen cooperation in referees.
