Australian video assistant referee Shaun Evans has denied intending to make a deliberate hand gesture on air at the World Cup, as FIFA cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Experienced A-League Men referee Evans is among the contingent of Australian officials at this year’s World Cup.

He was one of the VARs for Germany’s 7-1 win over Curacao on Monday (AEST).

Before the game, the world feed broadcast vision of the on-field officials with their names and roles before cutting to a shot of the VAR officials in their hub in Dallas.

Evans made an upside-down “OK” symbol with his right hand in front of his right leg.

It was interpreted by some as a reference to the “circle game” but attracted controversy because others believed Evans had made a gesture referencing white supremacy.

The 38-year-old Victorian was adamant he had done neither. The “gotcha” or “circle game” entails a person flashing an upside-down OK sign below their waist, and delivering a punch to the shoulder of anyone who looks at it. It was appropriated a decade ago as a signal for white power, with the three remaining fingers resembling a ‘W’ and the index finger and thumb making a “P”.

In 2019, New York’s Anti-Defamation League designated the gesture a hate symbol.

“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 on Tuesday (Australian time).

“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.”

Evans said his role at the World Cup was the biggest honour of his career and he wanted to keep supporting his colleagues throughout the rest of the tournament.

The Fare network, a long-time partner of FIFA and European soccer body UEFA to monitor racist and discriminatory chants, flags and symbols at international games, had called for Evans to be removed from the World Cup.

“Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup,” it said, describing the gesture as “neo-Nazi”.

In 2019 when the sign was designated as a hate symbol, Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s Centre on Extremism, said context was key to interpreting whether it was hateful or harmless.

“There is enough of a volume of use for hateful purposes that we felt it was important to add,” he said.

But FIFA found Evans had not breached its disciplinary code.

“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 game’s governing body said in a statement.

“The disciplinary committee has also taken note of Mr Evans’ statement.”

Evans is among 30 video review analysts selected by FIFA to work at the World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico.

-with AAP