Over 20,000 Bosnian fans have signed a petition asking FIFA to remove referee Peter O\u2019 Leary from the World Cup after a picture of the New Zealand official appeared to show him celebrating with Super Eagles goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama in their 0-1 loss to the African champions on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Bosnia went out of their first World Cup with a sense of injustice and the photo has increased the anger.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary drew fierce criticism for his decision to disallow Edin Dzeko’s early strike during Saturday’s Group F clash in Cuiaba.<\/p>\n
Some neutral think he intentionally ignored what seem to be a foul on Emir Spahic in the build-up to Peter Odemwingie’s winning goal, which saw Bosnia exit the tournament.<\/p>\n
Bosnians have now set up an online petition asking O’Leary to be fired and it already has over 23,000 signatures.<\/p>\n
Apart from the call for O’Leary\u2019s removal from the rest of the World Cup, the Bosnian fans also want the result to be changed to 1-1, meaning they are still in the tournament.<\/p>\n
After the game, Manchester City striker Dzeko slammed the referee’s performance as “shameful”.<\/p>\n
He said: “We should have won the game. But the referee was shameful.<\/p>\n
“We are going home, we are sad because of that. But this referee should be going home, too.<\/p>\n
“He changed the game. That\u2019s why we lost. It was obviously a foul on our captain and before, when I scored the goal, it was never offside.”<\/p>\n
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