The Fare network has urged FIFA to remove Australian VAR official Shaun Evans from the 2026 World Cup after he appeared to make a hand gesture that has been associated with white supremacist groups.
The incident occurred before Germany’s opening match against Curacao on Sunday when the official broadcast showed the team of video review officials.
Evans was seen making an “OK” sign with his right hand in front of his leg while working from the World Cup’s broadcast centre in Dallas.
Although the match was played in Houston, all video review operations are conducted remotely from Dallas.
The gesture, formed by joining the thumb and forefinger while extending the remaining fingers, was classified as a hate symbol by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League in 2019 due to its adoption by some far-right groups.
The Fare network, which works alongside FIFA and UEFA to monitor racism and discrimination in football, said the gesture raised serious concerns.
“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, a long-time partner of FIFA and European football body UEFA to monitor racist and discriminatory chants, flags and symbols at international games, said in a statement.
“Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup,” Fare said in a statement, describing the gesture as “neo-Nazi”.
FIFA has been approached for comment, while Australia’s Professional Football Referees Association and Football Australia were also contacted regarding the matter.
It remains unclear whether Evans intended the gesture as a political statement or was participating in the so-called “circle game”, a prank in which an upside-down OK sign is displayed below the waist and anyone who looks at it is playfully punched on the shoulder.
The symbol was later appropriated by white supremacist groups after originating as a hoax campaign on the far-right online forum 4chan.
When the ADL added the gesture to its database of hate symbols in 2019, Oren Segal, director of the organisation’s Centre on Extremism, stressed the importance of context in determining its meaning.
At the time, he 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 video review officials selected by FIFA for the World Cup being staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Questioning the official’s actions, Fare added: “Why is a VAR supervisor using this symbol at a global football event at the very moment he knows the cameras are on him?”
The organisation also noted: “We note that in the two subsequent games it appears TV directors have stopped introducing the VAR panel to the TV audience.”
“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.”
