A petition for referee Peter O’Leary to be removed from the World Cup has received 20,000 signatures from Bosnia fans after his performance in their 1-0 defeat to Nigeria.
The New Zealand official drew fierce criticism for his decision to disallow Edin Dzeko’s early strike during Saturday’s Group F clash in Cuiaba.
O’Leary also appeared to miss a foul on Emir Spahic in the build-up to Peter Odemwingie’s winning goal, which saw Bosnia exit the tournament.
And afterwards a picture of the referee appeared, seemingly celebrating with Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.
Unsurprisingly Safet Susic’s side were furious and one fan sent a petition to FIFA – with it now having received 20,000 signatures.
Alongside O’Leary being removed from the rest of the World Cup, they also want the result to be changed to 1-1, meaning they are still in the tournament.
After the game, Manchester City striker Dzeko slammed the referee’s performance as “shameful”.
He said: “We should have won the game. But the referee was shameful.
“We are going home, we are sad because of that. But this referee should be going home, too.
“He changed the game. That’s why we lost. It was obviously a foul on our captain and before, when I scored the goal, it was never offside.
