FIFA has launched an investigation into Australian referee Shaun Evans following footage that captured him appearing to make a hand gesture associated with white supremacist movements during the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Evans, who officiates in Australia's A-League, was stationed in the VAR booth providing video assistance during Germany's group-stage fixture against Curaçao. Cameras caught him looking directly into the lens while performing what appeared to be an upside-down "OK" sign — a gesture that has been linked in certain contexts to far-right symbolism.

The controversy around the gesture

The footage aired live before Germany kicked off their FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign — a match they went on to win emphatically, 7-1, against debutants Curaçao.

The incident draws comparisons to a similar case at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where an individual wearing Olympic Broadcasting Services kit was spotted twice making the same gesture during a skateboarding final. That person, later identified as a subcontractor, had their accreditation revoked.

The finger-and-thumb "OK" shape is widely used to signal approval or well-being, and also functions as a common emoji. However, its adoption by far-right groups has grown in recent years. In 2019, the BBC reported that the sign had been added to a formal list of hate symbols.

A nuanced symbol with contested meaning

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) acknowledged the gesture's far-right connotations but stressed that the "overwhelming usage" of the sign today still carries its traditional, benign meaning — approval, or simply that everything is fine.

The ADL cautioned that "particular care must be taken not to jump to conclusions about the intent behind someone who has used the gesture." The organisation also noted that the "OK" sign has become a "popular trolling tactic" among right-leaning individuals, who regularly share photographs of themselves making the gesture on social media.

The symbol's association with extremism traces back to an online hoax originating on 4Chan, where users invented a hidden meaning behind an otherwise harmless hand sign. Whether Evans intended any such meaning remains the central question for FIFA's investigators.