FIFA said Monday it found no evidence that VAR official Shaun Evans intentionally made a racist hand gesture ahead of Sunday's FIFA World Cup game between Germany and Curaçao.
When the official broadcast of Germany's opening game against Curaçao cut pregame to show the team of video review analysts, Evans, who is from Australia, made an "OK" symbol with his right hand in front of his right leg.
The gesture -- with thumb and forefinger touching in a circle and other fingers outstretched -- has been associated with white supremacy. In 2019, it was designated a hate symbol by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League.
"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 governing body said in a statement Monday.
Evans also adamantly denied that the gesture had any racist connotation or that he had made it intentionally.
"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 said it also had taken Evans' statement into consideration in reaching its decision.
Though the game was played in Houston, video officials work in Dallas at the World Cup broadcast center, which is where Evans was when the gesture was seen on broadcast.
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.
The OK gesture 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 got 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 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."
