FIFA clears Australian World Cup review official after televised hand gesture dispute

GENEVA (AP) — A FIFA panel has ruled that an Australian video review official at the World Cup did not violate football's disciplinary code after he attributed an on-screen hand movement, likened to a white supremacist sign, to an involuntary twitch.

Shaun Evans came under scrutiny when FIFA's discrimination monitor, the Fare network, pressed for him to be withdrawn from the competition.

Evans assisted the video assistant referee during Germany's 7-1 opening win against Curaçao on Sunday. Operating from the World Cup broadcast centre in Dallas, he appeared on the pre-match television feed showing the review officials when he briefly formed an "OK" shape with his right hand in front of his right leg.

In a statement released Monday through FIFA, Evans said: "I did not intentionally make a hand gesture or symbol to communicate a message, affiliation, game or belief of any kind." He continued: "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 New York-based Anti-Defamation League designated the gesture — thumb and forefinger joined in a circle with the other fingers extended — as a hate symbol in 2019.

Fare, a long-standing partner of FIFA and European governing body UEFA that tracks racist and discriminatory chants, flags and symbols at international fixtures, said its specialists advised that the movement closely matched an inverted "OK" hand sign used as a "white power" symbol in global far-right circles.

The organisation described the gesture as "neo-Nazi" and stated: "Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup."

Evans is attending his second World Cup and was working his first match of this year's tournament.