The Danish Football Association (DBU) announced on its website today that it had informed its Swedish counterpart that Friday's match, scheduled to take place in Gothenburg, was off.

"It is a historically bad day for the women's team and for Danish football overall," DBU senior vice-president Kim Hallberg told www.dbu.dk.

"It is regrettable but also grotesque that we are in a situation where players will not meet up for major international matches, even though we have offered better terms and invited them to new negotiations after the matches."

The DBU said it had offered to increase the investment in the women's team by two million Danish Krone (€268,650) per year, from 2.6m (€349,240) to 4.6m (€617,890), to be used on higher salaries, bonuses and strengthening the staff around the team.

The men's team offered to give up their 500,000 Krone (€67,161) annual bonus for the women, but this was rejected.

The DBU and the players' association (Spillerforeningen) have been in negotiations over the situation since last November.

The women's team, who in August reached the final of Euro 2017, losing to hosts Holland, are due to play another World Cup qualifier, in Croatia, on Tuesday.

The DBU said it has also informed world governing body FIFA of the players' absence, and was "awaiting a disciplinary ruling that may be both financial, punitive and/or excluded from the entire World Cup qualification".