Fifa’s discrimination monitor at the World Cup has called for the removal of a video assistant referee after he made a hand gesture widely recognised as a white supremacist symbol during the pre-match broadcast of Germany’s 7-1 win over Curaçao.
Shaun Evans, an Australian VAR official working at his first World Cup game, appeared on screen making an upside-down “OK” sign with his right hand in front of his right leg. The gesture – thumb and forefinger touched in a circle, other fingers outstretched – was designated a hate symbol by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League in 2019.
“Fifa's racism monitor urges removal of VAR official Shaun Evans over 'white power' hand gesture before Germany-Curaçao.”
Though the game was played in Houston, the VAR officials were shown from the referee hub in Dallas, where they had briefly posed for the camera as part of Fifa’s world feed coverage. The moment was immediately seized on by social media users and sparked a huge amount of speculation.
The Fare network, a longtime partner of Fifa and Uefa that monitors racist and discriminatory behaviour at international games, said in a statement: “Advice from our experts is that the gesture used clearly resembles an upside down ‘OK’ hand symbol used as a ‘white power’ symbol in global far-right circles. Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup.” Fare described the gesture as “neo-Nazi”.
Fifa said it was seeking an explanation from Evans, though contacted multiple times by BBC Sport, it had not yet issued an official response. In Australia, the Professional Football Referees Association and the governing body Football Australia were also contacted for comment.
The gesture has two distinct meanings. One is harmless: the so-called “circle game”, a prank that became an internet meme from the US sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, where an upside-down OK sign below the waist prompts a punch on the shoulder for anyone who looks at it. The other, according to the Anti-Defamation League, is a “popular trolling tactic” used by “right-leaning individuals” as a hate signal – a usage that began as a hoax on the far-right messageboard 4chan before being co-opted in earnest.
Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s Centre on Extremism, said when the symbol was added to the hate list: “There is enough of a volume of use for hateful purposes that we felt it was important to add.”
Whatever Evans’s intent, the pre-match broadcast changed noticeably after the Germany-Curaçao game. In three subsequent matches, the VAR officials were already facing their monitors when the camera cut to them – no longer did they look at the camera, though their names were still displayed.
Evans is among 30 VAR officials selected by Fifa to work at the World Cup, which is being played across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Fare asked: “Why is a VAR supervisor using this symbol at a global football event at the very moment he knows the cameras are on him?”