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VAR official Shaun Evans made ‘OK’ sign with right handResembles white power symbol used in far-right circlesFifa’s discrimination monitor at the World Cup called for a video assistant referee (VAR) to be removed for appearing to make a hand gesture resembling a white supremacist sign.When the official broadcast of Germany’s opening game against Curaçao on Sunday cut pre-game to show the team of VAR officials, Shaun Evans from Australia made an “OK” symbol with his right hand in front of his right leg. Though the game was played in Houston, VAR officials work in Dallas at the World Cup broadcast centre. In 2019, the gesture – with thumb and forefinger touched in a circle and other fingers outstretched – was designated a hate symbol by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League.“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 Fare network, a longtime partner of Fifa and Uefa, the European football governing body, to monitor racist and discriminatory chants, flags and symbols at international games, said in a statement. “Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup,” it added, also describing the gesture as “neo-Nazi.”It was unclear if Evans, working at his first game at the World Cup, was making a political gesture or playing a children’s game prank.The “gotcha” or “circle game” is where someone flashes an upside down OK sign below their waist and punches the shoulder of anyone who looks at it. It was appropriated a decade ago as a signal for white supremacy that started as a hoax on the far-right online messageboard 4chan.In 2019 when the sign was designated as a hate symbol, Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s Centre 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.”Evans is among 30 VAR officials selected by Fifa to work at the World Cup being played in the United States, Canada and Mexico.“Why is a VAR supervisor using this symbol at a global football event at the very moment he knows the cameras are on him?” Fare said. “We note that in the two subsequent games it appears TV directors have stopped introducing the VAR panel to the TV audience.”

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Artan deemed a threat to national security by US officials‘I promise you that I will attend the next one’The World Cup referee from Somalia who was denied entry to the United States arrived on Wednesday in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, where he was received by a crowd of supporters and officials.Omar Artan was due to be the first referee from Somalia to officiate at a World Cup after making Fifa’s final list for the tournament. He is one of Africa’s top referees and was named the continent’s best male referee in 2025.In Mogadishu, Artan criticised the decision to bar him entry to the US for the World Cup, saying that what had happened to him was “unfortunate”. The Trump administration said on Tuesday the US had denied Artan entry for the World Cup because of his links to “suspected members of terror organizations”.“What happened has happened and it was unfortunate. I am grateful for the support Fifa gave me,” Artan said and urged his supporters to stand behind their country. “Somalia is ours, whether things are good or bad. I want to tell our youth not to lose hope in our country,” he said. “I am now in my country, and there is no other place I want to be.“I promise you, God willing, that I will attend the next one,” he said as hundreds of supporters at the airport waved the Somali flag. “I want the Somali public to take comfort in this and remain confident.”A Fifa spokesperson said Artan would now not be able to train or officiate at the tournament, which starts in Mexico City on Thursday. Somalia’s government said it had tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the US and Fifa so that Artan could enter the US and was saddened by what had happened.Without identifying Artan, the US Customs and Border Protection said a Somali national arrived at Miami international airport from Istanbul on Saturday and was deemed inadmissible because of vetting concerns. An administration official later said CBP officials had determined that Artan was a threat to national security. Artan was issued with a visa to travel to the US last week, according to the Somali embassy in Kenya that processed it.The Trump administration’s strict immigration policies have been a point of concern before the World Cup, with Washington imposing a sweeping travel ban last year on citizens of 12 countries, including Somalia.