FIFA probes World Cup VAR referee over controversial hand sign during Germany match
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "FIFA probes World Cup VAR referee over controversial hand sign during Germany match")
FIFA probes VAR referee over controversial hand sign during Germany match Photograph: (YouTube Screengrab)
FIFA launches an official investigation after World Cup VAR official Shaun Evans flashed a controversial hand gesture on live TV, sparking calls for his immediate removal.
The FIFA discriminatory monitor at the ongoing World Cup 2026, referred to as an in-stadium Anti-Discrimination Monitoring System, which deploys trained and neutral observers to identify racist remarks during the matches, has called for a VAR official to be removed for appearing to make a hand gesture resembling a white supremacist sign. The instance caught everyone's attention after Shaun Evans, an Australian VAR official, made an ‘OK’ sign with his right hand during the live telecast of the Germany vs Curacao FIFA World Cup fixture on Sunday (Jun 14).
Just before the Germany game began, the official broadcast cut to the pre-game show showing the video review analysts, including Evans, making that controversial symbol. Although the game was played in Houston, the video officials sit in the FIFA World Cup broadcast centre in Dallas.
Evans' thumb and forefinger formed a circle with other fingers outstretched, forming an 'OK' sign, which was designated as a hate symbol by The New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in 2019.
“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”.
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Meanwhile, it remains unclear if Shaun Evans made that signal on purpose or unknowingly, with FIFA yet to comment.
Moreover, Shaun Evans, making his World Cup debut, is among 30 VAR officials selected by FIFA to work at the competition held across three countries – the US, 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.”
