World Cup referee issues statement after being accused of making 'white power' gesture
The VAR official who was accused of making a ‘white power’ gesture has broken his silence, after FIFA found there was ‘no evidence of breaches of the Fifa Disciplinary Code’.
Shaun Evans was accused of making a ‘white supremacist sign’ with his hands in a clip from Germany’s 7-1 win against Curaçao on Sunday.
Standing next to his World Cup colleagues, the Australian appeared to outstretch his fingers as his thumb and index finger touched to make an ‘OK’ symbol in front of his right leg.
The gesture has been used by far-right supporters and was added to the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) list of hate symbols in 2019.
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In the wake of the footage going viral online, Evans has now shared a statement, saying that he didn’t make the gesture intentionally, and that it was caused by an ‘involuntary, subconscious twitch’.
"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,” he 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.”
FIFA has cleared Evans of any wrong doing, releasing a statement to say: "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."
The gesture had previously been called out by anti-discrimination network Fare (Football Against Racism in Europe).
“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,” Fare said yesterday.
“Why is a VAR supervisor is using this symbol at a global football event at the very moment he knows the cameras are on him? It can only be that he is intentionally transmitting a far-right neo-nazi symbol.
“We note that in the two subsequent games it appears TV directors have stopped introducing the VAR panel to the TV audience.
“A global television audience should not be subjected to extremist far right individuals using neo-Nazi symbols as they prepare to watch a match. Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup.”
Claire Reid