Who Is Shaun Evans? World Cup Referee Faces Questions Over Hand Gesture
A FIFA World Cup assistant referee from Australia is now under scrutiny and facing calls for dismissal after being accused of making a white supremacist hand gesture during a recent game.
During the broadcast of Sunday’s group-stage match between Germany and Curaçao, held at Houston Stadium, cameras cut to the officiating room in Dallas where the video assistant referee (VAR) official Shaun Evans can be seen standing and making an inverted “OK” sign with his right hand.
While dismissed by many as a joke, others have said the gesture resembles the hate symbol that has been linked to white power ideologies-a view shared by FIFA's own discrimination monitor.
In a statement quoted by The Associated Press, the Fare network, which partners with FIFA as well as other soccer associations to combat discrimination in the sport, called on the organization to fire Evans over what it said was a “neo-Nazi” gesture.
“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 statement read. “Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup.”
Meanwhile, BBC Sport reported, based on anonymous sources, that FIFA is now looking into the matter.
Newsweek was unable to obtain contact details for Evans himself, and has reached out to Australia's Professional Football Referees Association (PFRA) and Football Australia, the country's soccer governing body, for comment. Newsweek has also contacted FIFA via email for comment.
What Gesture Did Evans Make?
During the broadcast of Germany’s 7-1 win over Curaçao, cameras briefly showed Evans, 38, making the gesture with his right hand.
The OK sign has since around 2017 taken on associations as a hate symbol, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which formally designated it as such in 2019. However, the organization acknowledges that the “overwhelming usage” remains “as a gesture signifying assent or approval.”
“As a result, someone who uses the symbol cannot be assumed to be using the symbol in either a trolling or, especially, white supremacist context unless other contextual evidence exists to support the contention,” a fact sheet on its website reads.
And many online have dismissed the gesture as innocuous, with some saying it is far more likely a joke based on the “circle game,” in which someone tricks another person into looking at the hand before punching them.
But FIFA's discrimination monitor has nevertheless called for Evans' dismissal.
“Why is a VAR supervisor using this symbol at a global football event at the very moment he knows the cameras are on him?” the group said.
It noted that broadcast introductions for the VAR officials have been stopped following the incident, while BBC Sport reports that subsequent matches have shown officials already at their monitors rather than being formally introduced.
Who Is Shaun Evans?
Evans was born in 1987 and was employed as a bricklayer prior to becoming a full-time referee, according to a profile on the Australian soccer website MyFootball.com.
“This is an amazing opportunity for me to really focus on my refereeing career,” Evans said upon turning pro in 2016. “I love refereeing and I'm excited to be able to put all of my attention and energy into improving myself and to have a sole focus toward being a better referee.”
According to his dedicated page on the PFRA’s website, Evans began refereeing in 2004 and had officiated 170 matches in the A-League competition by the end of the 2023-2024 season. Among his many officiating honors, Evans won Referee of the Year in the 2018-19 A-League, and served as a VAR official during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
In April, he was named as one of the thirty VAR match officials for this year's tournament-one of just four Australians among the 170 total referees that were appointed.
FIFA does not reveal who is set to officiate upcoming matches until a day or so before each game, according to ESPN, in order to limit any potential interference involving officials. Based on rotational workloads during past competitions, and the presence of 30 VAR referees for the 104-game tournament, Evans should be involved in around three-to-four matches over the course of the tournament.
As of Monday, Evans Instagram page is no longer currently active.
FIFA has not yet publicly commented on the incident.
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This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 9:25 AM.