Racism monitor urges FIFA to drop VAR official over hand gesture
Fare said Australian VAR official Shaun Evans should have no further World Cup role after a broadcast showed him making an upside-down OK sign.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
FIFA’s discrimination monitor at the World Cup has urged the governing body to remove an Australian VAR official after he appeared on air making a gesture associated with white supremacy. The Fare network said Shaun Evans should have “no further role” in the tournament after the incident before Germany’s match against Curacao.
The Associated Press reported that the official broadcast cut to the video review team before Sunday’s game, which was played in Houston. Evans, working from the World Cup broadcast centre in Dallas, made an OK symbol with his right hand in front of his right leg, according to AP.
Fare, a long-time FIFA and UEFA partner that monitors racist and discriminatory chants, flags and symbols at international matches, said its experts reviewed the image. The group said the gesture “clearly resembles an upside down ‘OK’ hand symbol” used as a white power sign in far-right circles.
“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.”
Al Jazeera said it asked FIFA for comment. In Australia, the Professional Football Referees Association and Football Australia were also contacted for comment, according to the report.
Gesture has disputed meanings
The hand sign can have more than one meaning. AP reported that it was unclear whether Evans intended a political message or was taking part in a children’s prank known as the “gotcha” or “circle game,” where a person flashes an upside-down OK sign below the waist and can punch the shoulder of someone who looks at it.
The New York-based Anti-Defamation League designated the OK gesture as a hate symbol in 2019 when used in certain contexts. The ADL has said the sign, formed by touching the thumb and forefinger while leaving the other fingers extended, was appropriated as a white supremacist signal after beginning as a hoax on the far-right message board 4chan.
Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s Center on Extremism, said in 2019 that context matters in deciding whether use of the sign is hateful or harmless. At the time, he said the ADL added it to its database because there was enough use of the gesture for hateful purposes.
Evans working first World Cup game
Evans is one of 30 video review analysts FIFA selected for the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, according to AP. The Germany-Curacao match was his first game at the tournament.
Fare also questioned why a VAR supervisor would use the symbol at a global football event while aware that cameras were on him. The group said that in two later games, television directors appeared to have stopped introducing the VAR panel to viewers.
The incident adds scrutiny to FIFA’s handling of discrimination monitoring during the tournament. Fare’s call leaves FIFA to decide whether Evans will continue in his video review role while questions remain over the meaning and intent of the gesture.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.