Scotland midfielder John McGinn hits back at Norway head coach Stale Solbakken after behind-closed-doors friendly postponed ahead of 2026 World Cup
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By Ben Grounds
Updated 09/06/2026 at 13:29 GMT+1
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Scotland midfielder John McGinn has jumped to the defence of Steve Clarke after the head coach was labelled "unprofessional" for cancelling a pre-World Cup friendly behind closed doors against Norway.
John McGinn has responded to criticism of the SFA from Norway
Image credit: Getty Images
Scotland made the call to cancel their training-ground encounter at short notice due to a spate of injuries - and the decision did not go down well with Norway head coach Stale Solbakken.
On Sunday, Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard scored a second-half equaliser as Norway drew 1-1 with Scotland's World Cup Group C opponents Morocco in New York.
Speaking to Norwegian public broadcaster NRK after the game, Solbakken shared his thoughts on the last-minute cancellation.
"It was at least as surprising to me, and it is unprofessional of Scotland," he 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.
"The cancellation means I made more changes in our game against Morocco.
"The idea of playing Scotland was that we could get some minutes in the legs of the guys who didn't play in the Morocco game.
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Norway were due to face Scotland in a behind-closed doors match on Monday
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"Scotland must have their morals, we must have our morals. But if it were me, I would have picked up the phone and explained."
But during a press conference on Monday, Aston Villa midfielder McGinn had his say on the row, leaping to the defence of Clarke.
”Our job is to look after Scotland," he said. "Norway’s job is to look after Norway, and if they’ve done their research, we lost a very important part of our squad very, very close to this camp.
”That had a huge impact on everyone. We didn’t want to lose another player. We’ve had a few niggles and not everyone has been training.
”So I think it’s a professional way of handling things, to be perfectly honest, to look after No. 1. And I’m sure every single country will be doing exactly the same thing.
"Norway will be angry because they will have had their own plans set up for that game. But if Norway lost Erling Haaland or Martin Odegaard in one of the games leading up to Saturday then they would have cancelled the game as well.”
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McCoist calls on Scotland to 'make an impact' on World Cup
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The finishing touches to preparations for the 2026 World Cup are being made, with the tournament getting underway on Thursday when co-hosts Mexico face South Africa at the Azteca Stadium (20:00 BST).
For other countries, including Norway, their first game is still over a week away - and with players still acclimatising to the very warm weather conditions, several nations have added warm-up games at their training facilities.
For example, England boss Thomas Tuchel has confirmed his side will play a behind-closed-doors friendly against local side Miami United later this week.
Both Scotland and Norway are based in North Carolina during the tournament, which led to the friendly initially being signed off.
But given the unofficial nature of the games, Scotland have activated their right to withdraw from a pre-arranged meeting with Norway at their Charlotte training base on Monday as a result of niggles within the squad.
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Martin Odegaard celebrates his goal against Morocco in New Jersey
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Norwegian FA media manager Morten Morisbak Skjonsberg said: "It is a poorly kept secret that we were supposed to play a training match against Scotland on Monday.
"Today we learned that Scotland unfortunately had to withdraw from the agreement due to injuries. Instead, we will train at Greensboro."
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Brede Hangeland, the former Fulham defender who is now team manager of Norway, told NRK: "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."
Norway begin their World Cup campaign in Group I against Iraq on Tuesday, June 16.
Why did Scotland decide to pull plug on friendly?
It has been a near-perfect couple of weeks for Scotland after two convincing victories over Curacao and Bolivia to inject some confidence into the players heading to their first World Cup finals since 1998.
The only real blemish was the injury to midfielder Billy Gilmour in the first of those two friendlies at Hampden Park, leading to Manchester United teenager Tyler Fletcher getting a late call-up to the squad.
For head coach Steve Clarke, whose side begin their Group C campaign in the early hours of Sunday morning against Haiti (02:00 BST), any further withdrawals at the 11th hour was not something he was willing to contemplate.
Clarke told BBC Scotland: "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.
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Che Adams celebrates as Scotland ran riot in the first half against Bolivia
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"It's just now about finalising the preparation for the first game. We've been doing that since the draw was made in December, so it's been a long time waiting to get here.
"I've been here a few times, so I understand what we're coming into. It's very hot, which is lovely, which is what we wanted, so we're looking forward to it.
"Me and some of the boys have been together now for seven years, so we've built a lot to get to this moment.
"To think of some of the low places that we have been and to be here at a World Cup with this group of players is just fantastic."
After facing Haiti, Scotland take on Morocco on June 19 before finishing their group games against Brazil on June 24.
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