06/15/26 08:41:00
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06/15 03:39 CDT World Cup racism monitor urges FIFA to remove match official
over hand gesture on TV broadcast
World Cup racism monitor urges FIFA to remove match official over hand gesture
on TV broadcast
By GRAHAM DUNBAR
AP Sports Writer
GENEVA (AP) --- FIFA's discrimination monitor at the World Cup called Monday
for a video review official to be removed for appearing to make a hand gesture
resembling a white supremacist sign.
When the official broadcast of Germany's opening game against Curaao on Sunday
cut pre-game to show the team of video review analysts, Shaun Evans from
Australia made an "OK" symbol with his right hand in front of his right leg.
Though the game was played in Houston, video officials work in Dallas at the
World Cup broadcast center.
In 2019, the gesture --- with thumb and forefinger touched in a circle and
other fingers outstretched --- was designated a hate symbol by the New
York-based Anti-Defamation League.
"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 soccer
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."
FIFA was asked for comment.
In Australia, the Professional Football Referees Association and governing body
Football Australia were contacted for comment.
It was unclear if Evans, working at his first game at the World Cup, was making
a political gesture or playing a children's game prank.
The "gotcha" or "circle game" is where someone flashes an upside-down OK sign
below their waist and punches in the shoulder anyone who looks at it.
It was appropriated a decade ago as a signal for white supremacy that started
as a hoax on the far-right online message board 4chan.
In 2019 when the sign was designated as a hate symbol, Oren Segal, director of
the ADL's Center on Extremism, said context is key to interpreting whether an
"OK" symbol is hateful or harmless.
At the time, he said, "there is enough of a volume of use for hateful purposes
that we felt it was important to add."
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.
"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."
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AP Sports Writer John Pye in Brisbane, Australia, contributed to this report
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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
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