An online petition to have the referee that officiated the Nigeria vs Bosnia match on Saturday has been signed by 20, 000 people. The petition to FIFA was started by a Bosnia fan, after an image of
referee Peter O’Leary appeared showing him ‘celebrating’ with the Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.
The New Zealand referee was widely criticized by the Bosnia team for disallowing an Edin Dzeko strike 21 minutes into the game. Eight minutes later Osaze Odemwingie scored the only goal in the match. During the build up to Odemwingie’s goal, Emmanuel Emenike also appeared to “clip the heels” of Emir Spahic, this allegedly went unnoticed by the referee. which went unnoticed by the referee.
This and the appearance of the picture has prompted a Bosnian fan to send a petition to Fifa asking for the removal of O’Leary and the match to be changed to 1-1.
When Dzeko was asked what happened in the game he said: “The referee happened. We are going home, we are sad because of that, but the referee should go home too, because he changed the result, he changed the game, and that’s why we lost. We tried to come back after the goal where there was obviously a foul on our captain and before when I scored a goal it was not offside. Nigeria played good as well, but the referee was shameful for this competition.”
FIFA has not commented on the petition.
No comments:
Post a Comment