Written by Megan Taylor, sports reporter covering international sports since 2020
FIFA VAR official hand gesture concerns have led the Fare network to call for Australian video assistant referee Shaun Evans to have no further role at the FIFA World Cup.
The incident came before Germany’s opening match against Curaçao on Sunday, when the broadcast showed the VAR team working from the World Cup broadcast centre in Dallas while the match was played in Houston.
The controversy follows another FIFA talking point, with FIFA Israel Palestine Match Plan Considered for New Under-15 Tournament showing how off-field issues continue to follow the governing body. Fans can follow official tournament updates through the FIFA website.
Fare Network Calls for Action
Evans appeared to make an “OK” symbol with his right hand in front of his right leg during the pre-game VAR introduction.
The gesture was listed as a hate symbol by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League in 2019, though the group has previously said context matters when judging its use.
“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,” the Fare network said in a statement.
“Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup,” it added, also describing the gesture as “neo-Nazi.”
Context Around Gesture Remains Unclear
It was not clear whether Evans was making a political gesture or playing the “circle game,” a children’s prank in which the sign is flashed below the waist.
The sign was later taken up by white supremacist groups after starting as a hoax on far-right online forum 4chan.
In 2019, Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Centre on Extremism, said: “There is enough of a volume of use for hateful purposes that we felt it was important to add.”
Evans is one of 30 VAR officials selected by FIFA for the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“Why is a VAR supervisor using this symbol at a global football event at the very moment he knows the cameras are on him?” Fare said. “We note that in the two subsequent games it appears TV directors have stopped introducing the VAR panel to the TV audience.”