Why Norway and Scotland are embroiled in war of words before World Cup

With the FIFA World Cup just a couple of days away, two participant countries are already in a spicy war of words with Norway and Scotland trading punches and counter=punches. This was after Scotland had canceled a training game with Norway scheduled for Monday due to an injury to Billy Gilmour in their previous warm-up game vs Curacao. The Norwegians didn’t take too kindly after being deprived of what they felt were important moments on the pitch before the World Cup begins proper on June 12. “It was surprising to me and 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,” Stale Solbakken, Norway’s head coach said. Scotland’s John McGinn would retort later that it was their job to look after their players and Norway should have done some research before commenting. “Our job is to look after Scotland, Norway’s job is to look after Norway” 🗣️ John McGinn responds to Norway’s criticism after Scotland cancelled their planned friendly ahead of the World Cup 🏆 pic.twitter.com/XIvYx7naR0 — Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 8, 2026 “I would say 75% of the squad didn’t see it. I did see it. Our job is to look after Scotland. Norway’s job is to look after Norway. If they have done their research, we lost a very important part of the squad very close to this camp and that had a huge impact on everyone. We didn’t want to lose another. We have had a few niggles, not everybody has been training. So I think it is a professional way of handling things, to look after No 1. I’m sure every single country would do the exact same,” he said in a press conference. Also Read | Trump’s America is hosting the FIFA World Cup. Not everyone is welcome “Norway will be angry because they have their own plans, they probably set up for that game. But if Norway lost Erling Haaland or Martin Odegaard in one of the games leading up to the tournament, they would cancel the game as well,” he added. Norway are in Group D in the World Cup along with Iraq, Senegal and France while Scotland are in Group Group C with Haiti, Morocco and Brazil. If by any chance, these two sides meet in the next few rounds, it promises to offer fireworks.

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