Fans and players have blamed the referee for Bosnia’s exit from the World Cup.

A petition calling for New Zealand referee Peter O’Leary to be removed from the World Cup has attracted more than 23,000 signatures after an image appearing to show him "celebrating” with Nigeria’s goalkeeper spread across the internet.

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Nigeria won its Group F game against Bosnia and Herzegovina in controversial circumstances at the weekend.

AP/Thanassis Stavrakis

Bosnia had a perfectly good goal by Edin Dzeko incorrectly ruled out for offside minutes before Nigeria’s Peter Odemwingie scored the only goal of the game to seal victory for the Super Eagles and send Bosnia out of the World Cup.

Bosnia had a perfectly good goal by Edin Dzeko incorrectly ruled out for offside minutes before Nigeria’s Peter Odemwingie scored the only goal of the game to seal victory for the Super Eagles and send Bosnia out of the World Cup.