A World Cup discrimination monitor has demanded that FIFA remove a video assistant referee (VAR) after he displayed a hand gesture associated with white supremacist groups during an official broadcast on Sunday.
The incident occurred in the Dallas broadcast center before the opening tournament match between Germany and Curacao in Houston.
Australian official Shaun Evans flashed an upside-down "OK" symbol on camera.
The Fare network, an organization that partners with FIFA and UEFA to monitor discriminatory and racist behavior at international soccer matches, identified the gesture as a hate symbol linked to global far-right movements.
"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," said the Fare network in an official statement.
The monitoring group insisted that the official must be barred from further participation in the ongoing international tournament due to the nature of the broadcasted signal.
"Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup," said the Fare network, which characterized the hand sign as "neo-Nazi".
The monitoring group also questioned why a high-level video supervisor would display such a signal globally while knowing television cameras were focused directly on him.
"Why is a VAR supervisor using this symbol at a global football event at the very moment he knows the cameras are on him?"
said the Fare network.
The anti-discrimination organization further observed a change in the subsequent tournament broadcasts following the controversial pre-game incident.
"We note that in the two subsequent games it appears TV directors have stopped introducing the VAR panel to the TV audience," said the Fare network.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) officially categorized the "OK" hand symbol as a hate sign in 2019, noting its origin as an online message board hoax before its adoption by white supremacists.
At the time of its classification, the director of the ADL's Center on Extremism, Oren Segal, emphasized that evaluating the context of the gesture remains vital to determining whether the sign is hateful or harmless.
"There is enough of a volume of use for hateful purposes that we felt it was important to add," said Oren Segal.
Evans is one of 30 video review analysts chosen by FIFA for the tournament across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Al Jazeera has reached out to FIFA, Football Australia, and the Professional Football Referees Association for comment.
