Spartak Moscow's players during a minute's silence for the victims of the Kemerovo shopping centre fire

Football fans in Russia stayed silent during the first half of matches in tribute to victims of a fire at a shopping and entertainment complex.

At least 64 people died in the fire on 25 March in the Siberian coal-mining city of Kemerovo.

"It was difficult to play the first half," Spartak Moscow captain Denis Glushakov said after his team's 2-1 win over Tosno on Saturday.

"The stands were completely quiet and it was very unusual."

Matches in the Russian Premier League started with a minute's silence.

A message on Dynamo Moscow's Twitter feed before their home game with Arsenal Tula said: "In order to honour the memory of those who died, the fans of most clubs have agreed to spend the first halves of their matches in silence.

"We encourage you to support this action." </s> Two fans have reportedly died during celebrations in France after the country won the 2018 FIFA World Cup by beating Croatia 4-2 in the final.

On Sunday France secured its second World Cup championship title at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, 20 years after winning its first World Cup on home soil in 1998. Fans across the country immediately took to the streets to celebrate their national team’s victory.

The nation celebrated through the night. The celebrations, however, were marred by the deaths of two fans and violence, which erupted in Paris late on Sunday. </s> Saudi Arabia National Team refuse to observe minute’s silence for London terror victims during football match with Australia

There was drama on Thursday as Saudi Arabia’s football national team declined to observe minute’s silence in honour of the victims of the London Bridge terror attack.

The shocking incident occurred ahead of the FIFA World Cup Asian qualifying match between Saudi Arabia and Australia.

When the stadium announcer called for a minute’s silence, 11 Australian players on the field lined up at the center circle with their arms on their teammates’ shoulders, but Saudi Arabian footballers ignored the tradition and took their positions on the pitch.

According to officials, the minute’s silence was approved by the Asian Football Confederation before the game and while Saudi Arabia’s national team agreed to the tribute, the players refused to pay their respects.

Last Saturday’s terror attack at London Bridge claimed the lives of seven people, including two Australian citizens.

After the match, a spokesperson for Football Federation Australia (FFA) also confirmed that they had an agreement with the Asian Football Confederation to hold minute’s silence for the victims of the London Bridge terror attack.

‘The FFA sought agreement from the Asian Football Confederation and the Saudi national team to hold a minute’s silence in memory of those lost in Saturday night’s terror bombings in London and in particular the two Australian women.

‘Both the AFC and the Saudi team agreed that the minute of silence could be held.

‘The FFA was further advised by Saudi team officials that this tradition was not in keeping with Saudi culture and they would move to their side of the field and respect our custom whilst taking their own positions on the field

The match ended 3- 2 in favour of Australia, leaving Saudi Arabia at 16 points in their qualifying group </s> There was drama as Saudi Arabia’s football national team declined to observe minute’s silence in honour of the victims of the London Bridge terror attack.

The shocking incident occurred ahead of the FIFA World Cup Asian qualifying match between Saudi Arabia and Australia.

When the stadium announcer called for a minute's silence, 11 Australian players on the field lined up at the center circle with their arms on their teammates' shoulders, but Saudi Arabian footballers ignored the tradition and took their positions on the pitch.

According to officials, the minute’s silence was approved by the Asian Football Confederation before the game and while Saudi Arabia’s national team agreed to the tribute, the players refused to pay their respects.

Last Saturday’s terror attack at London Bridge claimed the lives of seven people, including two Australian citizens.

After the match, a spokesperson for Football Federation Australia (FFA) also confirmed that they had an agreement with the Asian Football Confederation to hold minute's silence for the victims of the London Bridge terror attack.

‘The FFA sought agreement from the Asian Football Confederation and the Saudi national team to hold a minute’s silence in memory of those lost in night’s terror bombings in London and in particular the two Australian women.

‘Both the AFC and the Saudi team agreed that the minute of silence could be held.

‘The FFA was further advised by Saudi team officials that this tradition was not in keeping with Saudi culture and they would move to their side of the field and respect our custom whilst taking their own positions on the field

The match ended 3- 2 in favour of Australia, leaving Saudi Arabia at 16 points in their qualifying group. </s> Rome, Oct 24: More than 20 people, mainly Russian football fans, were injured on Tuesday when an escalator in a metro station in central Rome collapsed, firefighters said.

Most of those hurt, one seriously, suffered leg injuries after getting entangled in the escalator's mangled mechanics, Italian media added. A video of the drama shows the descending escalator at Repubblica station suddenly and dramatically pick up speed with dozens of people on it, many screaming as they piled on top of one another at the foot of the moving stairway.

Media reports said witnesses spoke of football fans, seemingly drunk, jumping and dancing on the escalator just before its collapse, but supporters denied this ever happened. "In any event, we are here to understand what happened and to offer our support to the wounded and their families," Rome mayor Virginia Raggi told journalists at the scene.

Some of the victims were seen wrapped in blankets and some wore neck braces as they were taken away from the scene on stretchers by emergency crews. Several investigations have been opened, and the metro station near Rome's Termini train station was closed.

The horrific events took place around 1730 GMT, just over an hour before the kickoff of a Champions League match between Italy's Roma and Russian club CSKA Moscow.

The Russian fans were headed for the metro that would have linked them to the train to the stadium. There was heightened security in Rome for some 1,500 Russian supporters, expected to watch the game. One Russian supporter, the subject of a stadium ban, had already been stopped at the airport as he tried to enter.

Also Read | Kolkata bridge collapse: One more body found, death toll reaches 3

But according to Italian media, this did not prevent an assortment of incidents around the stadium hosting the match. One Russian fan was stabbed with a knife, and two others were hurt in clashes with other supporters.

Roma won the group stage match 3-0, tweeting after the match that: "The thoughts of everyone at #ASRoma are with the supporters injured prior to tonight's game. The club will do everything it can to provide the right support and assistance to those in need." Red-Blue World, a CSKA fan group, set up a collection fund for those injured, as well as fans hurt in violence near the stadium.

Rome's public transport is often criticised as running on obsolete equipment. In recent years, more than a dozen municipal buses have caught fire while in service, with several reports of metro passengers injured by malfunctioning hardware. And a massive bridge collapse in Genoa in August -- which killed 43 people -- also raised safety questions about transport infrastructure in Italy. Incidents on escalators have caused injuries, and even deaths, around the world.

In 2015, a woman was killed after she plunged through flooring over an escalator in a Chinese department store. Security camera footage showed a panel in the floor giving way as the woman stepped off the escalator. As she fell half-way through she pushed her son forward, and a nearby shop assistant dragged him to safety.

And in March 2017, around 20 people were injured at a Hong Kong shopping centre when an escalator suddenly changed direction, sending people hurtling towards its base. </s> MOSCOW — Russia has chosen a cocky wolf wearing sporty goggles as the mascot for the 2018 football World Cup.

The wolf was chosen in online voting over two other mascot candidates -- a cat and a tiger wearing a space suit.

The announcement was made early Saturday at the end of an hour-long broadcast on state Channel One television. More than 1 million Russians voted in the contest, according to the broadcast.

World Cup matches are to take place in 11 cities in June and July 2018. The venues are in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saransk, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinburg. </s> Saudi Arabia’s national football team have been criticised for failing to observe a minute’s silence held before Thursday’s match against Australia in Adelaide.

The Socceroos lined up in the centre of the pitch before the World Cup qualifier and held the brief silence as a tribute to the two Australians killed in the terrorist attack in London at the weekend. As they did so, the Saudi Arabia team continued jogging, passing the ball between each other and taking their positions on the field. Pictures from the match show a single Saudi player, Salman al-Faraj, appearing to stand facing the Australia team with his hands behind his back.

Adam Peacock, a presenter with Fox Sports Australia, said on Twitter the Asian Football Confederation has approved the minute’s silence against the wishes of travelling Saudi officials. He said the Football Federation of Australia “tried to reason” with the Saudis but were unable to persuade them to participate in the tribute.

Sara Zelenak, 21, from Brisbane and the South Australian Kirsty Boden, 28, were killed in Saturday night’s terrorist attack. Zelenak was working in London as a nanny and Boden was a nurse, whose family said she died running “towards danger, in an effort to help people on the bridge”. Two other Australians were stabbed in the neck in the attack, which has been claimed by the terrorist group Islamic State.

The decision not to participate in the tribute was met with criticism on Twitter.

Others defended the Saudi team, suggesting the minute’s silence was not a recognised way to show respect and condolences in the country’s culture or in Islam more broadly.

But that appeared to clash with other instances of Gulf countries holding minute’s silences, including to mark the death of the former Saudi King Abdullah.

Another image appeared to show a domestic Saudi team, al-Ahli Saudi FC, standing for a minute’s silence before a Qatar Airways Cup match against Barcelona in December 2016.

Australia went on to win the match 3-2, putting the country on track to qualify for the next World Cup in Russia in 2018. </s> Rome: More than 20 people, mainly Russian football fans, were injured Tuesday when an escalator in a metro station in central Rome collapsed, in an incident some blamed on raucous football supporters.

Most of those hurt, one seriously, suffered leg injuries after getting entangled in the escalator's mangled mechanics, Italian media added. A video of the drama shows the descending escalator at Repubblica station suddenly and dramatically pick up speed with dozens of people on it, many screaming as they piled on top of one another at the foot of the moving stairway.

Media reports said witnesses spoke of football fans, seemingly drunk, jumping and dancing on the escalator just before its collapse, but supporters denied this ever happened. "In any event, we are here to understand what happened and to offer our support to the wounded and their families," Rome mayor Virginia Raggi told journalists at the scene.

Several investigations have been opened, and the metro station near Rome's Termini train station was closed. The horrific events took place around 1730 GMT, just over an hour before the kickoff of a Champion's League match between Italy's Roma and Russian club CSKA Moscow. The Russian fans were headed for the metro that would have linked them to the train to the stadium.

There was heightened security in Rome for some 1,500 Russian supporters, notoriously rowdy, expected to watch the game. One Russian supporter, the subject of a stadium ban, had already been stopped at the airport as he tried to enter. But according to Italian media, this did not prevent an assortment of incidents around the stadium hosting the match. One Russian fan was stabbed with a knife, and two others were hurt in clashes with other supporters.

Roma won the group stage match 3-0, tweeting after the match that: "The thoughts of everyone at #ASRoma are with the supporters injured prior to tonight's game. The club will do everything it can to provide the right support and assistance to those in need." Rome's public transport is often criticised as running on obsolete equipment. In recent years, more than a dozen municipal buses have caught fire while in service, with several reports of metro passengers injured by malfunctioning hardware. </s> Politics and football are allied on certain aspects in every corner of the world, even when it is the biggest spectacle of the concerned sport. Ever since Russia were awarded the rights to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, there have been consternation about potential discrimination to players and visiting fans, the country's human rights situation and Vladimir Putin's worsening diplomatic relations with much of the western world, especially because of the Russian President's approach of soft power grab in Europe through the FIFA World Cup.

Russia, for all its military firepower and intelligence assets, has been rendered slightly inconsequential since the collapse of the Soviet Union, more so in light of the economic sanctions put in place against them, making the 2018 FIFA World Cup a significant cultural conduit for Putin, but all the background noise faded away as football took centre stage at the refurbished Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow as early as the twelfth minute through Yuri Gazinsky's opening goal.

Gazinsky was barely two-years-old when the disintegration of the USSR in 1991 changed the political landscape of his country, and on Thursday, the midfielder's first international goal in his first appearance in over fifteen months paved the way for a 5-0 rout of Saudi Arabia to mark the commencement of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Russia headed into the World Cup as the lowest ranked team in the FIFA, a mantle Saudi Arabia are likely to seize come end of the tournament, but the injury-depleted hosts were buoyed by the occasion to put in a flawless display. Stanislav Cherchesov abandoned his three-man defence and opted for a traditional 4-2-3-1 while Saudi Arabia lined up in a 4-1-4-1 formation.

The match was evenly contested for most of the first half as both teams adopted a cautious approach to build-up play. As the minutes ticked by and the hosts settled into a comfortable rhythm, it became progressively difficult for Juan Antonio Pizzi's Saudi Arabia to assert themselves in spite of their superlative ball possession. Russia chose to drive straight at the Asian country's backline every time they had the ball, the Green Falcons failing to come up with a solution for the Russian midfielders' late, incisive passes to an overlapping runner between the channels.

Russia's first goal came off a corner earned through such a ploy - although Saudi Arabia cleared the initial corner, Aleksandr Golovin combined with veteran Yuri Zhirkov on the left flank to loop in a cross into the penalty area which was slotted in by Gazinsky. Minutes later, Russia's attacking midfielder-in-chief Alan Dzagoev would limp off with a hamstring injury, but substitute Denis Cherysev put in an inspired performance, one which prompted Russian supporters to wonder why the Real Madrid academy graduate wasn't handed a start.

Cheryshev's brace was symbolic of the gulf in class between the two nations. If his first goal was a consequence of his technical abilities shining through, side-lining an inept Saudi defense with a quick piece of skill followed by an well-executed shot, his second of the night was a spectacular moment of individual brilliance as his shot with the outside of his left boot from the edge of the penalty area swirled over an outstretched Abdullah Al-Mayoof.

Equally crucial to Russia's display was another substitute Artem Dzyuba who scored the third of the night and teed up Cheryshev's stoppage-time stunner. The hosts are not the favourites in Group A by any means, but Cherchesov does have a few skilful players who can outsmart any opposition on their days. Aleksandr Golovin, arguably the Sbornaya's brightest talent, capped off his sterling night with an inch-perfect free-kick to complete Saudi Arabia's pummelling.

If excellent finishing from the Russians were to blame for the Falcons' misery, Saudi Arabia certainly did not help themselves as they repeatedly gave the ball away in dangerous areas and struggled to deal with textbook situations in their defensive third. The collective shambles of the Saudi Arabia backline, in turn, coerced their attackers to attempt ambitious moves without much success, resulting in a disjointed shape and a pitiful display.

Sometimes direct football is the best modus operandi, especially for teams without earth-shattering talents in their ranks. Russia kept it simple and reaped the rewards, while Saudi Arabia committed schoolboy errors and paid the price.

Saudi Arabia must regroup quickly, while Russia should do away with any elation for the next two matches will be more difficult for both nations - both Egypt and Uruguay have far more accomplished players in their midst. While the Russian performance invited a call of appreciation for Cherchesov from President Putin, the looks of incredulity shared by Putin with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia after every Russian golazo were a sight to behold, or as he worded it "the power of humanistic beginning" of the most "spectacular, vibrant, uncompromising game" on the planet.
Football matches across Russia are marked with silence from fans throughout the first half to commemorate the dead.