LISBON: An online petition in Portugal demanding the resignation of Sepp Blatter as president of world football federation FIFA has totted up almost 25,000 signature so far.

The petition was launched amid fans’ anger over Blatter’s light-hearted references to Ronaldo and his personal style in a question and answer session after an address Friday to Oxford Union.

Blatter had to issue a formal apology after being hit with a length letter of protest from Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.

Ronaldo had complained that the comments were disrespectful to both him and the Portuguese people.

The petition stated: “The president of FIFA has insulted Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal and the Portuguese football in general. For all this, and taking into account that took a public position of favouritism for a particular player [Leo Messi], placing him as the favourite to win the World Player title, we the Portuguese people and others outraged throughout the world, do undersign sign this petition demanding the resignation of Joseph S Blatter.”

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