Urgent decision from the Norwegian federation: Haaland 'isolated' after Manchester City crisis!

English football's biggest ever financial scandal was barely hours old when the fallout reached the Norway camp. Its first victim: Erling Haaland.

The Norwegian Football Federation cancelled the press conference scheduled for Haaland on Saturday, a surprise move that betrays the depth of the anxiety within the governing body. The reasoning was obvious enough. They wanted to shield their star from a barrage of awkward questions about the fate of his club, Manchester City.

The Athletic dropped the bombshell on Friday afternoon, revealing that an independent commission had found Manchester City guilty of 114 charges out of a total of 115 relating to systematic breaches of the financial fair play rules between 2009 and 2018. TV2 sports commentator Mina Finstad Berg described the ruling as one that "would be like an earthquake if it is true that they were found guilty on all charges except one".

A message and its opposite within hours

According to Norwegian channel TV2, the federation is now doing everything it can to keep Haaland away from questions on this thorny subject.

Earlier on Friday, media director Morten Skjønsberg had sent an official message to the press confirming that Haaland and national team coach Ståle Solbakken would hold a joint press conference on Saturday.

Then, on Friday evening, everything changed. A brief counter-message arrived from the federation: "We are making adjustments to the press conference scheduled for tomorrow. Solbakken, Ørsnes and Sørloth will be on the ground floor".

Gone from the list entirely was Haaland's name, replaced by two team-mates, Ørsnes and Sørloth. The signal could not have been clearer. Instructions had gone out to keep the striker away from the media until the picture becomes clear.

Manchester City have confirmed they will appeal the ruling, and proceedings are still ongoing. Even so, the Norwegian federation preferred not to take the risk of putting its main striker in direct confrontation with questions he currently cannot answer.