New Zealand referee, Peter O’Leary, was the main referee on the match at the Arena Pantanal. After 21 minutes of the match, along with the signal line referee, he whistled non-existent offside after regular goal by Edin Džeko.
On that occasion, the captain of the Dragons, who will never forget that moment, gave a statement.
“No, it was not the offside,” Džeko commented briefly.
Soon after this referee mistake, Peter Odemwingi scored for Nigeria and, as it turned out later on, they got a very important 3 points which took them to the second round of the competition.
Dragons defeated Iran in the third round of the Cup, but had to return home after the group phase.
In April this year, the referee O’Leary announced the end of his career. However, he already spoke about Edin Džeko’s goal in the match against Nigeria.
“It was a very obvious mistake. The assistant raised his flag and I whistled the offside. Even though I’m not the one who raised the flag, I was the main referee and I’m responsible for this. If I was in a better position, I would probably see what happened and I would not whistled offside. However, I was not in a better position and I did it, “said O’Leary last year in November.
(Source: klix.ba)
