World Cup VAR official releases statement after alleged white supremacist hand gesture

FifaWorld Cup 2026 official Shaun Evans has denied “intentionally” making a gesture that some perceived to be connected to an expression of white supremacy.

>The Australian referee, working as part of the VAR team in Dallas at the World Cup broadcast centre, was seen making an “OK” symbol with his right hand in front of his right leg when the official broadcast of Germany against Curaçao on Sunday cut away from pre-game footage to show the team of video review analysts.

>The match, played in Houston, led to many complaints over the gesture, which sees a thumb and forefinger touched in a circle and other fingers outstretched and was interpreted as a hate symbol by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League in 2019.

>But after a Fifa investigation, which cleared Evans, the Australian underlined the gesture was a "an involuntary, subconscious twitch" and that he was "unaware" that he had made it.

>Fifa said there was "no evidence of breaches of the Fifa Disciplinary Code,” with Evans releasing a statement.

(Screenshot / YouTube)"The coverage following this incident simply does not reflect who I am," Evans said.

>"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."

Evans is among 30 video review analysts selected by FIFA to work at the World Cup being played in the United States, Canada and Mexico (Getty)Evans was working at his first game at the World Cup, with some suggesting he was playing a children’s prank.

>The “gotcha” or “circle game” sees somebody show an upside-down OK sign below their waist, with anybody seen looking at it punched in the shoulder.

>Though it was also appropriated a decade ago as a signal for white supremacy, originally from a hoax on the far-right online message board 4chan.