Saudi Arabia national team refuses to observe minute of silence for London victims

The Saudi Arabian soccer team failed to line up for a minute's silence for the London terror victims on Thursday night.
Fans were left outraged at the display ahead of a World Cup qualifier against Australia in Adelaide.
Pictures show the Australian team lined up at the halfway mark, with the Saudi players appearing to ignore the gesture as they get in formation to start the game.
It is also claimed Saudi players on the bench refused to stand for the minute's silence.

It's possible the Saudi team did not understand the concept or were not told what was going on, but pictures show only a few members of the team paying their respects.
Australian football fans on social media were furious however, and lashed out against the team.

'Minutes silence for London terror, Saudi players wandering around like they don't give a f***, Saudi fans shouting the whole time #AUSvKSA,' a man named Adam tweeted.
Others called for official measures to be taken against the team.

However, some Saudi fans claimed it was not within Islamic culture to take a moment of silence to respect the dead.
'They come from a different culture. They just don't understand the point of being silence for a minute to show sadness.. we never do it in KSA,' one fan wrote.'
The majority of the Saudi side are Muslim, and to honour the dead, it is understood they pray, give to charity and speak highly of the person, but rarely observe silence.
However, minutes of silence are a common occurrence in the Premier League, and Muslim players are not known to boycott the mark of respect.
The game added extra tension to an already important match, but Australia came out on top with a score of 3-2.
Saudi FA, FFA, FIFA and the AFC have been approached for comment.

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I hope the people of UK know who their real enemy and threat to their lives are.

Nothing wrong for having a moment of silence for the dead. But how do you chose? There was a huge bombing in Kabul just a few days ago that killed over 100 people. Numerous others in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

These rituals should stay domestic. I can understand a bit of outrage if the game was between SA vs England, and say the game was played in England. But this is not the case.

^ The host team chooses. same way in EPL when a legend of LFC/Chelsea die and them, they have those minutes and 99% of the time the away team respects it and observes it. it's called common decency.

Australia were the hosts today and of course they have very close relations with UK as they are both part of the commonwealth. Plus it's called common decency. It's not like Australia asked Saudis to observe minute of silence for the dead in Tehran (whom they despise)...it was for the dead in UK (Who is like a brother state to Australia).

The same way there was minute of silence in most football matches in the world after Paris attacks including all EPL games (when Turkish fans booed the minute of silence before their game vs. Greece).


Is asking these people to stand up silent for one minute too much ??

P.S. 2 of the victims in London were Australia citizens. here you go !

Sensible reason to hold it since Australians were involved.

Really hoping this was just a misunderstanding.

EDIT: But even so, how do you misunderstand this? Ugh

They come from a different culture. They just don't understand the point of being silence for a minute to show sadness.. we never do it in KSA,' one fan wrote.'

How do the Muslim GLers react to this? Some truth to it or bullshit? I find it hard to believe they did not understand they were being disrespectful

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

They come from a different culture. They just don't understand the point of being silence for a minute to show sadness.. we never do it in KSA,' one fan wrote.'

How do the Muslim GLers react to this? Some truth to it or bullshit? I find it hard to believe they did not understand they were being disrespectful

Even if it is the truth it's still incredibly disrespectful and in poor taste.

And no doubt they knew what they were doing. There's no doubt in my mind.

No idea what the point of it is tbh. I hate when people can't accept and adapt to these customs in other cultures. This is part of football culture in general, so you have to adapt. When I visit my muslim family and I change my behaviour and act accordingly, I don't arrive with 5 porn videos, 100 L of whiskey and ten pounds of bacon.

Saudi Arabia is *bleep* cancer.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

They come from a different culture. They just don't understand the point of being silence for a minute to show sadness.. we never do it in KSA,' one fan wrote.'

How do the Muslim GLers react to this? Some truth to it or bullshit? I find it hard to believe they did not understand they were being disrespectful

Culturally probably true to some unfortunately.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

They come from a different culture. They just don't understand the point of being silence for a minute to show sadness.. we never do it in KSA,' one fan wrote.'

How do the Muslim GLers react to this? Some truth to it or bullshit? I find it hard to believe they did not understand they were being disrespectful

I'm not from Saudi so I can't comment. Different Muslim countries can be very different culturally. In my country, minutes of silence for the deceased is common.

M99 wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

They come from a different culture. They just don't understand the point of being silence for a minute to show sadness.. we never do it in KSA,' one fan wrote.'

How do the Muslim GLers react to this? Some truth to it or bullshit? I find it hard to believe they did not understand they were being disrespectful

I'm not from Saudi so I can't comment. Different Muslim countries can be very different culturally. In my country, minutes of silence for the deceased is common.

It's the norm everywhere. Saudi is what causes problems today. Would rather Pakistan handling Mecca than them.

Bunch of idiots.

The last things Muslims need these days is making headlines for shit like this.

farfan wrote:Bunch of idiots.

The last things Muslims need these days is making headlines for shit like this.

You can't generalise all the other Muslims based on them. Saudi Arabia does shite doesn't mean all the other Muslims support it. People should be educated enough to realize the difference.

If this actually harms Islam or the Muslim reputation, It shows how ignorant the world has become again.

Nishankly wrote:

farfan wrote:Bunch of idiots.

The last things Muslims need these days is making headlines for shit like this.

You can't generalise all the other Muslims based on them. Saudi Arabia does shite doesn't mean all the other Muslims support it. People should be educated enough to realize the difference.

If this actually harms Islam or the Muslim reputation, It shows how ignorant the world has become again.

I'm not generalizing, I'm actually sympathizing with them.

You know damn well how headlines like this are gonna be received by a huge segment of the western population.

Which is exactly the problem of this world. Anyways.

Disgrace. Bunch of lost souls hiding behind that "different culture" pathetic excuse.

As if nobody's got a clue of what's going on when a whole stadium goes silent

Nishankly wrote:Saudi Arabia is *bleep* cancer.

Then you blame others for generalizing. Nooice

There is no miss understanding, this was blatant, *bleep* off with the this isn't their culture crap, yeah when we go there we respect their cultures, Australia is all for respecting each other's cultures for them to come and shit on us like this when we were paying respects to the killed from our land, you would think they would respect ours since that is what is demmand when go there.

Anyways I'm surprised that didn't pay respects to their fallen brothers who were invoovded.

The FFA notified them before hand.

farfan wrote:Bunch of idiots.

The last things Muslims need these days is making headlines for shit like this.

no mate. the last thing muslims need are headlines for shit like this.

I will give a medal to my biggest supporter too.