FIFA will launch an investigation after Australian referee Shaun Evans was accused of making a gesture associated with white supremacy while on camera during Germany’s 7-1 World Cup win over Curacao
FIFA are poised to launch an investigation after an official was accused of making a gesture linked with white supremacy during a World Cup match.
Australian referee Shaun Evans was the assistant VAR for Germany’s 7-1 victory against Curacao in Group E on Sunday. When the broadcast switched to the match officials in the VAR room before kick-off, as is now standard at the World Cup, 38-year-old Evans seemed to make an upside down ‘OK’ signal with his right hand on his thigh. This gesture has been connected with the ‘white power’ movement.
The Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant used the symbol when he appeared in court following his 2019 arrest for murdering 50 people in a shooting at two mosques in New Zealand. That year, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) stated that the OK symbol had become a ‘popular trolling tactic’ from ‘right-leaning individuals’.
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However, the gesture is also linked with a playground game. A person would make the symbol below their waist and anyone who looks is punched.
The ADL also state that the ‘overwhelming usage’ of the hand gesture is still to show approval, or to signal that someone is OK. “Particular care must be taken not to jump to conclusions about the intent behind someone who has used the gesture,” they state.
Nevertheless, it can be a ‘sincere expression of white supremacy’. The BBC confirmed in 2019 that the ‘OK’ hand gesture had been added to its list of hate symbols.
Reach Sport has approached FIFA for comment.
At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, a man had his accreditation withdrawn for apparently making the gesture during a women’s skateboarding final.
The man was subsequently identified as a subcontractor who appeared to make the hand signal twice while positioned behind athletes during the event.
Evans began as a part-time match official while working as a bricklayer. The Melbourne native commenced officiating in Australia’s A-League as an assistant referee in 2008 before being elevated to referee four years later.
In 2017, Evans was included on the FIFA International Referees List. Fare, the anti-discrimination network that seeks to combat inequality in football, issued a statement on Sunday saying: “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.
“Why is a VAR supervisor is using this symbol at a global football event at the very moment he knows the cameras are on him? It can only be that he is intentionally transmitting a far-right neo-nazi symbol.
“We note that in the two subsequent games it appears TV directors have stopped introducing the VAR panel to the TV audience.
“A global television audience should not be subjected to extremist far right individuals using neo-Nazi symbols as they prepare to watch a match. Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup.”