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>Austrian football fans had a friendly “face off” with Irish fans outside the Aviva stadium in Dublin, where the two teams were playing a World Cup qualifying match. No scenes of hooliganism, just two sets of fans singing their hearts out.Local media described the scene in this way: …Nice to see two sets of supporters coming together and having a song and a chat and bonding over the universal theme of football. The match ended in a draw, but the Austrians appear to have won the singing contest outside.</s>"Over 200,000 tickets for the free trains have been booked by the fans, which makes for more than 46 percent of the total number of tickets. We recommend the fans to avoid postponing the booking of tickets to the last moment as the number of seats is limited," Polyakov stated, adding that it will be possible to book tickets by phone.

The free trains will operate on 30 routes during the World Cup, with the total number of available seats exceeding 440,000. Fans need to buy match tickets and receive their Fan IDs before applying for free tickets.

According to Polyakov, World Cup visitors from 145 countries have already booked free tickets, with football fans from Russia, Colombia, Argentina, China, Mexico and the United States being among the most active.

READ MORE: Russia to Form Tourist Police Units in World Cup Host Cities — Interior Ministry

Russian Railways plan to use new double-decker trains, as well as the high-speed Lastochka and Strizh trains during the tournament.

Russia will host its first FIFA World Cup from June 14 to July 15. Matches will take place in a total of 11 cities, namely Kaliningrad, Kazan, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, and Yekaterinburg.

READ MORE: Moscow's Emergency Services to Communicate on Special Network During World Cup
Football matches across Russia are marked with silence from fans throughout the first half to commemorate the dead.