Steve Clarke explains Scotland World Cup friendly snub as Norway fume at 'unprofessional act'
Scots were due to face Norwegian at their basecamp
Scotland head coach Steve Clarke says the decision not to play Norway in a closed-door friendly was purely precautionary - and revealed that the match was only due to last an hour in any case.
Clarke has been branded “unprofessional” by his Norwegian counterpart Stale Solbakken after scrapping the match at the Scots’ Charlotte basecamp at short notice. The reason given for the cancellation is down to niggling injuries to certain players in the squad.
Scotland played Bolivia on Saturday night, winning 4-0, while Norway drew 1-1 with the Scots’ Group C opponents Morocco 24 hours later. Both games were played at Sports Illustrated Stadium in New Jersey.
Scotland begin their campaign against Haiti in the early hours of Sunday morning and Clarke is leaving nothing to chance in terms of his squad’s conditioning - especially after losing midfielder Billy Gilmour to a tournament-ending knee injury during a warm-up match against Curacao.
“It was just going to be a training game for an hour at our training ground,” the head coach told the BBC. “We picked up one or two niggles last week and decided it wasn’t worth the risk.”
Speaking to Norwegian media, Solbakken expressed his dismay and disgust at the bounce match being scrapped.
“It was at least as surprising to me, and it is unprofessional of Scotland,” Solbakken said. “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.
“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. But we have to live with that. That’s why we adjusted a bit in the game.”
Norway’s team manager Brede Hangeland added: “We have been working on that match for many months. It is embarrassing to cancel it a couple of days before.
“We can’t do anything about it, 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.”
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