FIFA has cleared the referee at the centre of a controversy over an alleged “White power” gesture, who has denied intentionally doing so and instead called it an “involuntary, subconscious twitch”.Ahead of Germany’s 7-1 victory over Curaçao on Sunday, support video assistant referee Shaun Evans was pictured making the hand gesture when match coverage cut to the video referee studio.The gesture, in which the thumb and index finger touch while the other fingers of the hand are held outstretched, has historically been perceived as meaning OK.However, in recent years, it has been used to symbolize ‘White power’, with the three remaining fingers spelling W for White and the thumb and index finger enabling a P to be drawn for Power.The anti-discrimination Fare network, which specializes in challenging inequalities in football, said on Sunday that advice from its experts is that Evans’ gesture “clearly resembles an upside down ‘OK’ hand symbol used as a ‘White power’ symbol in global far-right circles”.FIFA initially said it was aware of the incident but declined to comment further but has now concluded Evans’ gesture did not constitute a breach of its disciplinary code.Evans is a regular official in the Australian A-League (Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)A statement from Evans on Monday said: “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.