Kenyan Referees to Miss Out on Over Ksh9 Million Pay After 2026 World Cup Snub

Kenyan referees will not be part of those officiating at the 2026 World Cup after being overlooked by FIFA.

FIFA released a list of match officials set to work on World Cup matches and it has seven centre referees, 10 assistants and two VAR officials from Africa.

However, no Kenyan made the list despite having some of the top officials in Africa. Highly rated assistant referee Stephen Yiembe, who worked on 2025 FIFA Club World Cup matches as well as at the Paris 2024 Olympics and most recently the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations missed out.

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From the four-man list of Kenyan officials which had Yiembe, Gilbert Cheruiyot and Dickens Mimisa, all assistants, as well as centre referee Peter Waweru Kamaku at AFCON 2025, none of them will be at the World Cup.

The seven African centre referees headed to the World Cup are; South African Abongile Tom, Jayeed Jalal from Morocco, Somalia’s Omar Abdul, Atcho Pierre from Gabon, Algeria’s Mustapha Ghorbal, Egyptian Amin Mohamed, and Beida Ivan of Mauritania.

Meanwhile, the 10 assistants from Africa will be; Zakhele Siwela from South Africa, Mostafa Akarkad of Morocco, Egyptians Mahmoud Abdouelregal and Ahmed Hossam, Amos Abeigne and Boris Ditsoga, both from Gabon, Algerian duo Mokrane Gourari and Abbes Akram Algeria, Cameroonian Elvis Noupue as well as Jerson Santos from Angola while Moroccan Hamza El Fariq and Egyptian Ashour Mahmoud will be the VAR officials from Africa at the World Cup.

Jean-Jacques Ndala, from DR Congo, who officiated the highly controversial AFCON 2025 final between Morocco and Senegal was also overlooked.

The appointed referees are set to pocket a bumper amount as the World Cup is the highest-paying FIFA-organised tournament on the globe.

Based on the 2022 World Cup salary, centre referees were earning a flat fee of $70,000 (Ksh9 million) for their participation. In addition, they earned significant match bonuses, specifically $3,000 (Ksh387,750) per group stage match and $10,000 (Ksh1.3 million) per knockout stage game and this will likely remain the same or increase.

A total of 52 centre referees, 88 assistants and 30 VAR officials from across all six confederations and 50 Member Associations have been appointed to oversee the FIFA World Cup in June/July and they will oversee 104 matches.