Cancelled friendly sparks row between Scotland, Norway coaches

A planned behind-closed-doors friendly between Scotland and Norway has sparked a war of words between the two nations’ coaches after the Scots withdrew from the match citing injury concerns.

The training-ground fixture, scheduled for Monday in North Carolina as both teams continue preparations for the start of their World Cup campaigns, was called off by Scotland after several players reportedly picked up minor injuries.

Scotland manager Steve Clarke said the decision was taken to avoid aggravating fitness concerns within his squad.

As reported by BBC Sport on Monday, Clarke was quoted as saying, “It was just going to be a training game for an hour at our training ground. We picked up one or two niggles last week and decided it wasn’t worth the risk.”

The cancellation, however, drew a sharp response from Norway head coach Stale Solbakken, who accused Scotland of handling the situation poorly.

Speaking after Norway’s 1-1 draw with Morocco in a public friendly on Sunday, Solbakken described the decision as both disappointing and unprofessional.

“It is unprofessional of Scotland,” Solbakken told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. “It is unprofessional that the coach has not called me, that they use the team manager and call and say it after we have finished training.”

The Norwegian coach also questioned Scotland’s explanation for the cancellation.

“I don’t think the injuries they’re blaming came from the last training session. That’s not the case. It’s disappointing. It’s unprofessional,” he said.

“But we have to live with that. That’s why we adjusted a bit in the game.”

Norway had reportedly incorporated the fixture into its preparations for the World Cup qualifiers, with team officials expressing frustration over the late notice.

Norway team manager Brede Hangeland said arrangements for the match had been in place for months.

“It is embarrassing to cancel it a couple of days before. We can’t do anything about it,” Hangeland said.

“We just have to forget about it and make the best of it. But there has been a lot of organisation, agreements and gentlemen’s agreements and then suddenly they don’t want to.”

“I think that was weak, so to speak.”

Both teams are based in North Carolina ahead of the start of their respective qualifying campaigns. Norway begin their Group I campaign against Iraq next Tuesday, while Scotland face Haiti in their Group C opener three days earlier.

Scotland head into the tournament on the back of a convincing 4-0 victory over Bolivia in their final public warm-up match, a game in which Clarke rotated much of his squad as he fine-tuned preparations for the qualifiers.