Last week, Bosnia-Herzegovina fell to Nigeria in a controversial match dotted with two separate referee incidents: an
offsides call that negated a clear Bosnia-Herzegovina goal, and a no-call that allowed Nigeria to score. One could write
both off to terrible officiating and unfortunate timing, were it not for the emergence of the above photo.
The photo, which comes directly from Getty Images and is not Photoshopped, shows New Zealand referee Peter O'Leary, in
black, apparently celebrating with Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama. That was enough to incite the rage of Bosnian fans,
who created a petition with 23,000 signatures demanding the removal of O'Leary and a change in the score from 1-0 Nigeria
to 1-1. (Good luck with that, friends.)
Petitions or not, the game burned in the hearts of both fans and players. "The referee was shameful,” said Bosnian striker
Edin Dzeko, who scored the goal that was called back. “We are going home and we are sad because of that but this referee
should be going home too. He changed the result and he changed the game. That’s why we lost."
offsides call that negated a clear Bosnia-Herzegovina goal, and a no-call that allowed Nigeria to score. One could write
both off to terrible officiating and unfortunate timing, were it not for the emergence of the above photo.
The photo, which comes directly from Getty Images and is not Photoshopped, shows New Zealand referee Peter O'Leary, in
black, apparently celebrating with Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama. That was enough to incite the rage of Bosnian fans,
who created a petition with 23,000 signatures demanding the removal of O'Leary and a change in the score from 1-0 Nigeria
to 1-1. (Good luck with that, friends.)
Petitions or not, the game burned in the hearts of both fans and players. "The referee was shameful,” said Bosnian striker
Edin Dzeko, who scored the goal that was called back. “We are going home and we are sad because of that but this referee
should be going home too. He changed the result and he changed the game. That’s why we lost."
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