Norwich forced to apologise for claiming 13-0 win over wrong opponents

Updated: 01 Jul, 2017 • • min read

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Championship side Norwich City have issued an apology after claiming to have won a pre-season friendly 13-0 against an Italian team that they had not actually played.

The teams are out after a slight delay. #NCFC #SCVA pic.twitter.com/cSCXu4v3W3
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) July 20, 2014

The confusion started when Norwich's original opponents, Serie C side Novara, cancelled their scheduled clash with the Canaries.

Replacement opponents were drafted in and Norwich took to their website to report a 13-0 win over a team which they believed to be Serie D outfit Saint-Christophe Vallee d'Aoste.

However, it turned out that Norwich were not playing the Serie D club, and were in fact playing against a collection of local footballers who had been selected for the game at short notice, and fielded as "Aosta Regional Select XI".

After SC Vallee d'Aoste notified them of the error, Norwich updated the match report on their official website and released the following statement.

In our original match report for this warm-up fixture, acting in good faith on the basis of information given to the club, we incorrectly reported that we had played against local club side SC Vallee d'Aoste.

In fact the game was against an Aosta regional select side and we are happy to put the record straight and apologise to SC Vallee d'Aoste and their fans for the misunderstanding.