Scotland have been labelled as 'embarrassing' and 'weak' after withdrawing from a scheduled behind-closed-doors friendly against Norway at short notice. The match was set to take place on Monday night at Scotland's training base in Charlotte, but on Saturday the Scottish FA informed their Norwegian counterparts that they no longer wished to proceed.
Background of the cancelled match
The friendly had been in the calendar for weeks and was arranged by Scottish FA football operations manager Michael Hughes and Norway's Brede Hangeland, a former Fulham defender. Both nations are preparing for their first World Cup appearances in over two decades. The decision to cancel was made by senior administrative figures rather than the team managers, according to reports.
Norway's reaction
Norway expressed anger at the cancellation. Hangeland stated: 'We have been working on that match for many months. It is embarrassing to cancel it a couple of days before. Everything was clarified in a so-called gentlemen's agreement. So I don't think it was particularly gentlemanly to cancel on such short notice. Suddenly, they don't want to play. That was very weak.'
Atletico Madrid striker Alexander Sorloth added: 'It's a real shame and quite unprofessional of Scotland.'
Scotland's defence
Scotland midfielder John McGinn fired back, arguing that Norway would have done the same in a similar situation. 'Our job is to look after Scotland. Norway's job is to look after Norway,' he said. 'If they've done their research, we lost a very important part of the squad very close to this camp. It had a huge impact on everyone. We didn't want to lose another.'
The Scottish FA released a statement expressing 'regret' over the cancellation, citing injury concerns: '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.'
