FIFA partner calls for Australian ref to be sacked over hand gesture

The Australian referee at the centre of the World Cup hand gesture controversy has responded after calls to have him sacked from the tournament.

Shaun Evans, who was filmed in the review box before Germany's opening game against Curaçao on Monday morning, was accused of making a "white power" symbol after appearing to make a circle with his fingers.

In 2019, the gesture — with the thumb and forefinger touching in a circle and the other fingers outstretched — was designated a hate symbol by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League.

"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 in a statement.

"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.

"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."

FIFA's discrimination monitor at the World Cup called for Evans to be removed from the tournament.

"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," said 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.

"Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup," Fare said in its statement, describing the gesture as "Neo-Nazi".

At the time it was thought that Evans, working at his second-straight World Cup and his first game at this edition, was either 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 became popular after being used in an episode of comedy TV show Malcolm in the Middle in 2000.

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.

The sign received global attention in March 2019 in New Zealand, after it was made during the first court appearance by the white supremacist shooter who killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch.

Later in 2019, when the sign was designated as a hate symbol, Oren Segal, director of the ADL's Center on Extremism, said context was 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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