Tribal Football

Norway head coach slams Scotland for cancelling behind-closed-doors friendly

Stale Solbakken on the touchline
Stale Solbakken on the touchlineFredrik Varfjell / NTB via REUTERS

Norway manager Stale Solbakken heavily criticised Scotland counterpart Steve Clarke ⁠on Monday, branding Scotland "unprofessional" after they unexpectedly cancelled a planned behind-closed-doors training match, citing player injuries.

The ‌fixture, scheduled for Monday at Scotland’s training camp in Charlotte, ‌North Carolina, was arranged months in advance ‌to give fringe players match practice ahead of the ‌World Cup.

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However, the Norwegian camp was notified of ‌the cancellation late on Friday night following their final training session, forcing Solbakken to alter his tactical approach ‌for Sunday's 1-1 friendly draw against ⁠Morocco in New Jersey.

"It ‌was just as surprising to me, and it is ​unprofessional of Scotland," Solbakken told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

"It's unprofessional that their manager didn't call ​me personally, that they used their team manager to call and tell us this after we completed ⁠training. I don't ​believe the injuries they are blaming this on happened during their last session."

Scotland head coach Steve Clarke played down the disruption on Sunday evening, telling ‌the BBC that the match was only meant to be a one-hour training ground exercise.

Clarke added that his squad had picked up some minor injuries during the week and decided against fulfilling the fixture, just a little more than a day after Scotland cruised to a 4-0 friendly victory over Bolivia.

"We picked up one or two niggles ‌last week and decided it wasn't worth the ​risk," he said.

The sudden cancellation has drawn sharp ‌rebukes from senior Norwegian figures and players, including striker Alexander Sorloth, who called the decision "a great shame and quite unprofessional."

Norway will open their World Cup campaign against Iraq on June ⁠16, while Scotland start ⁠against Haiti on ‌June 14.

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