SCOTLAND'S friendly with Norway next month will be moved away from Oslo because of the low crowds at recent matches in the capital city.
The Scottish Football Association have confirmed Gordon Strachan's side will travel to Scandinavia on Tuesday, November 19 but, after just 6796 - their lowest attendance for 21 years - turned up for the final home World Cup qualifier against Iceland earlier this week, the Norwegian FA have decided to relocate the game away from the Ullevaal Stadium for the first time in 11 years.
The venue will be either the Viking Stadium in Stavanger, Aker Stadium in Molde, Brann Stadium in Bergen, or Rosenborg's Lerkendal Stadium in Trondheim. The capacities of those grounds range from 11,800 to 21,000. Svein Graff, a spokesman for the Norwegian FA, said: "It has to be at a stadium of a certain size, outside Oslo and won't be played on artificial turf. We feel it is important that the people of Norway outside of Oslo get to see the national team too."
Those Norwegians will also get to see the side rated the 35th best in the world, after Scotland's win against Croatia allowed them to leap up the rankings from 63rd place. That climb betters the nation's previous biggest jump, which also occurred this year, when Gordon Strachan's team rose from 74th to 50 after the 1-0 victory against the Croats in Zagreb. The surge means Scotland become the second-highest ranked of the home nations, moving ahead of Ireland (60) for the first time since March 2010. England sit in 10th place, with Wales 44th and Northern Ireland 90th.
The midweek win was achieved without Shaun Maloney, scorer of the winner in Macedonia last month, but the attacker is hopeful a course of injections will mend a back problem suffered during that qualifier. Since then, the Wigan Athletic player has only managed 62 minutes of football. "Shaun is a deep thinker and a very conscientious lad, but he's at his best and his happiest when he's out there kicking a ball around," Owen Coyle, his club manager, said. "We have to wait for the next week to 10 days, see what happens with this injection."
Another Scot keen to get back on the pitch is midfielder Fraser Fyvie. A team-mate of Maloney's at Wigan, the Scotland under-21 player has been out of favour under Coyle and has joined Yeovil Town on loan until January. The 20-year-old moved south from Aberdeen in a £500,000 deal in 2012 but has played just nine times and expressed a desire to move last week.
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