'Unprofessional' Clarke slammed by Norway as Scotland cancel friendly

Scotland v Curacao - International Friendly

Scotland's World Cup preparations have been hit by an incredible war of words following the late cancellation of a behind-closed-doors friendly against Norway. The decision has left Scandinavian officials fuming, with stinging accusations of unprofessionalism directed at Steve Clarke and the Scottish FA.

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Solbakken vents fury at 'unprofessional' Clarke

Norway head coach Stale Solbakken did not hold back after learning that the planned warm-up fixture against Scotland had been scrapped at the eleventh hour. The former Wolves boss was particularly aggrieved that he did not receive a direct call from Clarke to explain the situation, suggesting that a "gentlemen's agreement" had been broken.

Explaining his frustration, Solbakken branded the U-turn as ‘unprofessional’ and claimed it caused significant disruption to his squad's rhythm. "It is unprofessional of Scotland. 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," Solbakken stated.

Scottish FA defends 'correct and consistent' process

The Scottish FA reacted swiftly to the criticism, issuing a firm statement to clarify their position as the squad arrived at their training base in North Carolina.

According to the governing body, the decision was based purely on player welfare following a series of minor injury concerns within the camp after their recent 4-0 victory over Bolivia.

The SFA statement read: “The behind-closed-doors training game was organised and arranged between the respective team managers - not the head coaches - and this was the same process we followed when we regrettably had to cancel on Saturday. We have had some injuries during our previous friendlies and when it became apparent that a training game would bring greater risk than potential preparatory reward, we alerted the Norway team manager as soon as possible. We believe this was the right and consistent process. The game was also due to be behind closed doors and not announced publicly - so we were surprised when news of the game broke via Norwegian media.”

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Clarke prioritises squad safety over bounce game

Despite the brewing controversy, Scotland manager appeared unphased as he focused on the upcoming World Cup campaign. Clarke insisted that the decision was a simple matter of risk management, noting that a "training game" was not worth jeopardising the fitness of key players who had picked up knocks earlier in the week.

“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,” Clarke explained briefly.

Scotland officials are adamant that the Norwegian camp was notified before the Scots took to the field for their weekend clash in New Jersey, despite claims from the other side that the notification came too late.

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Norway stars echo 'weak' and 'embarrassing' claims

The criticism wasn't limited to the coaching staff, as Norway's operations manager Brede Hangeland and several senior players expressed their disappointment. Hangeland, the former Fulham defender, was scathing in his assessment of the SFA's conduct, suggesting the Scottish side had failed to honour a long-standing arrangement.

“We have been working on that match for many months. It is embarrassing to cancel it a couple of days before," Hangeland said. "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.”