Manchester United and Manchester City will pay tribute to the victims of the Manchester synagogue attack before their Premier League matches this weekend.
However, tributes will not be held routinely across the Premier League or English Football League over Thursday’s incident, which killed two people and injured three others.
United players will wear black armbands and hold a minute’s silence before their match against Sunderland at Old Trafford on Saturday.
Ruben Amorim, United’s men’s manager, stated during a news conference on Friday: “It is a crazy world we are living in at the moment; a lot of big things happened. Sympathy to victims; we will pay tribute tomorrow.”
United’s under-18 and under-21 teams will also wear black armbands during their games.
Manchester City will also wear black armbands when they travel to Brentford on Sunday, and they and the Bees have agreed to observe a moment of silence before kickoff.
Brentford had previously planned a memorial for their academy goalkeeper, Christopher Ramsey, who died on Wednesday from intestinal cancer.
Brentford have agreed to shift the tribute from a minute of applause to quiet due to the tragedy of Thursday’s incident.
Manchester City’s ladies will also pay their respects ahead of their WSL fixture against Arsenal on Saturday.
It is thought that the Premier League and EFL will back any club that wishes to pay tribute.
Salford City, whose field is less than two miles from the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue where the incident occurred, will wear black armbands and observe a minute’s silence before their League Two match against Grimsby on Saturday.
On the first weekend of the season, all Premier League games were preceded by a moment of silence in memory of Liverpool player Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva, who died in a vehicle accident in Spain.
However, the Premier League has long distanced itself from the idea of blanket silences for non-football problems, while previously supporting anti-discrimination campaigns.
It comes after the Football Association declared that Wembley Stadium’s arch would only be lit for football and entertainment under a new policy beginning in November 2023.
The decision came amid complaints that the arch was not lit in the colors of the Israeli flag following the Hamas bombings on October 7, which killed 1,200 people.
Four years ago, the Premier League, EFL, and FA were accused of “double standards” for not paying respect to the 50 people slain in the New Zealand mosque attacks.
Following the November 2015 attacks in Paris, top-flight clubs wore black armbands and sang France’s national song.
