Australian Shaun Evans has denied he intentionally made a hand gesture used by white supremacists in a clip of the VAR officials prior to Germany’s match against Curacao match on Sunday.
Evans appeared to make an upside-down ‘OK’ symbol with his right hand as the broadcast feed cut to the ‘meet the team’ section for the VARs before kick-off.
The gesture is used in the completely harmless school-yard ‘circle game’, but has also been used by far-right supporters and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) added it to a list of hate symbols in 2019.
FIFA is understood to be seeking answers from Evans as to why he made the gesture, although the governing body subsequently said no evidence of any disciplinary code breaches had been established.
The Fare network, which combats inequality and discrimination in football, has nevertheless called for the Australian official to be sent home.
Evans issued a statement on Monday maintaining any movement he made “was an involuntary, subconscious twitch” of which he was “unaware” he had done at the time.
“I would like to clarify that I did not intentionally make a hand gesture or symbol to communicate a message, affiliation, game or belief of any kind,” Evans said.
“The only explanation I can offer is that the movement was an involuntary, subconscious twitch and I was unaware I had done it at the time.
“Images taken later during the match showed that I repeated this movement many times while holding a pen between my fingers.”
Evans added: “The coverage following this incident simply does not reflect who I am.
“Of course, I understand how the gesture has been interpreted and I regret this, however I want to be very clear and categorically say that I did not knowingly or deliberately make the hand symbol suggested.
“Officiating at the World Cup is the biggest honour of my career and I look forward to supporting my colleagues for the rest of the tournament.”
In all matches up to and including this one, officials had stood facing towards the camera when the feed cut to the VAR hub in Dallas. In the games that followed it, the VAR teams were shown at work, facing their screens. FIFA has not commented on why this change was made.
Following on from Evans’ statement, the governing body said: “FIFA’s independent disciplinary committee can confirm that, after looking into the matter involving support video assistant referee Shaun Evans, it has found no evidence of breaches of the FIFA Disciplinary Code.
“The Disciplinary Committee has also taken note of Mr Evans’ statement.”
