Shaun Evans, an Australian referee at this year’s World Cup, has been accused of making a white supremacist hand gesture during an official broadcast on Sunday night.
Evans was captured placing his index finger and thumb together to create an “O” figure with his right hand in front of his right leg during Sunday night’s broadcast of Germany’s opening game against Curaçao. Evans was in an off-site booth for video referees.
🚨 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: FIFA has launched an investigation into assistant VAR Shaun Evans after he appeared to make a hand gesture that has been linked to far-right extremist groups.The Australian official is now under review. pic.twitter.com/PKEYmH42vV
The Fare network, a long-time partner of FIFA that monitors racist and discriminatory chants and symbols at international games, said the gesture was “clearly” used to resemble white supremacist ideology.
“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 their statement.
“Why is a VAR supervisor 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.”
The statement continued: “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.”
FIFA has yet to make a public statement about the incident, but BBC Sport reported that the organization is investigating what happened. The hand gesture has been used by members of white supremacist movements since 2017 and originates from a series of conspiracy theories from the message board 4chan.
During Sunday’s game, Germany beat Curaçao by seven goals to one.
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