two people have mentioned recently that this game has been moved a week. Anyone know if this is true, as I am trying to plan a visit and get together with this game as the focal point on Aug 19th next year.

Any help appreciated

The game has been moved to the 12th.

No it hasn`t(yet)

There is presently no definitive position with regard to the FIFA World Cup Qualifying match, Norway v. Scotland, originally scheduled to be played on Wednesday, 19th August, 2009 following FIFA's unilateral decision to bring forward this previously confirmed international match date, by one week, to Wednesday, 12th August, 2009.

The change of international match date presents the Norwegian Federation, Scottish FA and their supporters with a variety of issues. Both National Associations are continuing to work in tandem to find a suitable solution."

this suitable solution being what exactly? There are Champions League/Europa League ties on the preceding 7 or 8 midweeks (i.e. every midweek, right back to the end of June). So clearly we can't put it earlier, but that would be even more disruptive than the current situation. There are 2 midweeks between the 'new' Norway v Scotland date, and the Scotland v Macedonian match but they are both used for Champions League/Europa League ties too. So no midweeks available.

The only alternative to playing the game on August 12th would be to try to play it on an adjacent weekend. However, this would require the SPL and Tippeligaen to agree to the measure - and in addition, the game would be outside the international release window i.e. clubs could refuse to release players. Plus it's still an inconvenience to fans, as is any change away from August 19th.

This problem arose solely because the SFA and their Norwegian counterparts failed to notice the proposed changes to the International Calendar (which were freely available to Joe Blogs public, if you knew where to look) - and because of their inflexibility to use competitive slots in the first place. Friendly slots are not intended for qualifiers, but they used it as a 'quick fix' solution IMO.

The match will surely go ahead on Wednesday 12th August - as I see no alternative to this date.


EDIT TO ADD: Also it's wrong to say FIFA made decided unilaterally. Request was tabled by UEFA (of which Scotland and Norway are members...) to assist with the new club competitions format...

Apologies for bringing back tot he top, but the SFA webite has still got the 19th and I got this reply from their email system

Thanks for your message.

It will be passed to the appropriate department and we may contact you in due course.

Does anyone have any further information re the date? Cheers

I got an E-mail the other day from the SSC saying it hasn't been changed yet.

And the FIFA website has it

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries...resresults.html

Bit in the Sunday Post yesterday saying that Scotland wants to keep it at the 19th but Gogs Smith was not optimistic.Norway would prefer the 12th

It can't possibly be the 19th. That midweek is final qualifying round of the Champions League, and the final qualifying round of the Europa League. We could have 4 teams involved in them. Norway could have 3 teams involved, plus more through Fair Play. Totally inconceivable that the international can go ahead on this date, unless FIFA mess up their whole system and change the weeks around just to suit Norway (who aren't bothered anyway) and Scotland. And they won't, which is perfectly right.

The alternative - which was mentioned in The Scotsman or Scotland on Sunday IIRC - is to postpone the tie until the October international dates. But the rest of the group might veto that (because they want everyone to finish at same time). And it doesn't change anything regarding inconvenienced fans.

Many fans will be out of pocket and inconvenienced due to this - but it was all totally avoidable.