Saudi Arabia reportedly snubbed a moment of silence to honor the eight victims of last weekend’s terror attacks in London during a soccer match Thursday, saying it wasn't part of their "culture."
According to ESPN, 11 Australian players lined up before the World Cup qualifier match with the Saudis to pay their respects to the deceased, two of which were Australian. The Saudi players, on the other hand, completely ignored the moment of silence and “milled about separately on the other side” of the field.
At first, there was some confusion as to whether the Saudi team had gotten the memo about the moment of silence. But ignorance clearly wasn’t a factor, as ESPN reports:
The Australian football federation (FFA) said after the match that the Saudis both knew about and agreed to the plan to hold a minute's silence but declined to participate in the manner traditional at football games.
“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 report added.
Then again, getting blown up, run over by a bus or stabbed in the face isn’t traditionally part of London’s culture, either. But that didn’t seem to matter to the terrorists.
The story had a happy ending, though, as Australia proceeded to stomp out the Saudi team 3-2.
Guess winning isn’t part of the Saudi soccer team’s culture, either.