Man Utd & Man City to pay tribute to synagogue attack victims

Manchester United and Manchester City will pay tribute to the victims of the Manchester synagogue attack before their Premier League fixtures this weekend.

But tributes will not be routinely held across the Premier League or English Football League over Thursday's incident in which two people died and three others were injured.

United players will wear black armbands and hold a minute's silence before their match against Sunderland at Old Trafford on Saturday, while the women's team will do the same at their Women's Super League match against Chelsea on Friday night.

Speaking at his news conference on Friday, United men's manager Ruben Amorim said: "It is a crazy world we are living in at the moment, lot of big things happened, sympathy to victims, we will pay tribute tomorrow."

United's under-18 and under-21 sides will also wear black armbands in their games.

City will also wear black armbands when they travel to Brentford on Sunday and have agreed with the Bees to hold a moment's silence before kick-off.

A commemoration was already planned by Brentford in memory of their head of academy goalkeeping Christopher Ramsey, who died on Wednesday of bowel cancer.

Brentford have agreed to change the tribute from a minute's applause to silence given the gravity of Thursday's attack.

Manchester City women will also pay their respects before their WSL match against Arsenal on Saturday.

It is understood both the Premier League and EFL will support any club wishing to pay tribute.

On the first weekend of the season, a Premier League-wide moment of silence was held before all top-flight matches in memory of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva after their deaths in a car crash in Spain.

However, Premier League sources have said the organisation has, for some time, moved away from the idea of having blanket silences for non-football issues, although it has previously embraced anti-discrimination initiatives.

It comes after the Football Association announced that Wembley's arch would only be lit for football and entertainment under a new policy in November 2023.

The decision followed criticism when the arch was not lit in the colours of the Israel flag after the October 7 attacks by Hamas in which 1,200 people were killed.

Four years earlier, the Premier League, EFL and FA were accused of "double standards" for not holding tributes for 50 people killed in New Zealand's mosque attacks.

Top-flight clubs had worn black armbands and France's national anthem was played after November 2015's Paris attacks.