Scotland and Norway Coaches Clash Over Cancelled Match

A friendly match between Scotland and Norway has caused a heated exchange between the coaches after Scotland pulled out due to injury issues.

The friendly was set to take place on Monday in North Carolina as both teams prepared for their World Cup journeys. Scotland called off the match after some players faced minor injuries.

Scotland's manager Steve Clarke said they made the decision to protect the fitness of his players.

Clarke was quoted by BBC Sport on Monday 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."

Norway's head coach Stale Solbakken responded strongly to the cancellation, saying Scotland did not handle the situation well.

After Norway's 1-1 draw with Morocco in a public friendly on Sunday, Solbakken called the decision 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 doubted Scotland's reason for cancelling the match.

"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 added.

Norway had included this match in their plans for the World Cup qualifiers. Team officials were upset about the late notice from Scotland.

Norway's team manager Brede Hangeland mentioned that they had been preparing for the fixture 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 training in North Carolina ahead of their qualifying matches. Norway will start their Group I campaign against Iraq next Tuesday, while Scotland will play Haiti in their Group C opener three days earlier.

Scotland heads into the tournament after a strong 4-0 win over Bolivia in their last warm-up match. Clarke rotated many players in that game to prepare for the qualifiers.