A PETITION has been launched to reinstate a Hampshire goalkeeper who quit a football club after eating a pie in the dugout during an FA Cup tie.

Wayne Shaw was accused of "taking the gloss" off Sutton's FA Cup clash with Arsenal after he resigned following a pie-eating stunt that threatened to fall foul of Football Association betting rules.

The 46-year-old goalkeeper handed in his resignation on Tuesday as he prompted a betting probe after he was shown on television tucking into the snack towards the end of the 2-0 loss.

READ: Hampshire goalkeeper quits club over pie-eating stunt >>>

Sutton held their own against a strong Arsenal side, only for manager Paul Doswell to be left dealing with the fallout of Shaw's antics.

Political news website Guido Fawkes has now launched a petition to have Shaw reinstated to the club.

The petition says: "Sutton United's rotund reserve goalkeeper Wayne Shaw was unjustly sacked for eating a pie in the dugout during his team's FA Cup tie against Arsenal.

"Justice must prevail and Wayne must be reinstated to the subs' bench."

The departing keeper admitted after the match he was aware Sun Bets - who also sponsored Sutton's shirts for the night - were offering 8-1 on him to be shown eating in the dugout during the game.

Both the Football Association and Gambling Commission announced independent investigations into the stunt, which Doswell felt had taken something away from his players on the biggest night of most of their careers.

"Wayne has offered his resignation to the chairman this afternoon and that has been accepted. It's a very sad end to what was a very good story," he said.

"He's absolutely devastated - tears down the phone this afternoon. There's no joy and nothing good coming out of this particular situation for him.

"It's taken the gloss off my players' performance and gone on to something it shouldn't have gone on to. I feel very sorry for the players in many regards that that spotlight has been taken away from them.

"It was an honest error but one that's had quite sad ramifications. Wayne's been swept along with what's happened in this last three or four weeks."

The FA announced on Tuesday that it will launch an inquiry to determine whether Shaw breached its gambling regulations.

"We are investigating to establish whether there has been any breach of The FA rules relating to betting," an FA spokesperson said.

There could also be fall-out for the bookmakers, with the Gambling Commission confirming its own investigation into the incident to decide whether Sun Bets had breached its licence requirement by offering such a bet in the first instance.

''Integrity in sport is not a joke and we have opened an investigation to establish exactly what happened,'' Richard Watson, the commission's enforcement and intelligence director, said in a statement.

''As part of that we'll be looking into any irregularity in the betting market and establishing whether the operator has met its licence requirement to conduct its business with integrity.''

Sun Bets tweeted after the game that they had paid out a "five-figure sum" on a bet that Shaw would eat a pie in the dugout and the goalkeeper, who also worked as a coach for the club, said after the game he "would give them a bit of banter".

The petition can be found by clicking here.