JUST eight per cent of people play football on a regular basis - despite its reputation as Scotland's national sport.
Official figures reveal more Scots take part in cycling, running and swimming than the Beautiful Game, sparking calls for better access to facilities.
It comes amid a 40 per cent boom in the number of women participating in sports such as basketball, football, hockey, aquatics, rugby and tennis.
Olympic silver medallist swimmer Michael Jamieson and Hibs star Dylan McGeoch highlighted the important of enjoying a kick-about on Christmas Day as they took part in the Street Soccer initiative - which allowed homeless people to play football with the famous names.
Scottish Conservative sport spokesman Brian Whittle said more people playing football could boost health and even "foster new talent for our national team".
He said: “Football is supposed to be Scotland’s national sport, but - for a game that so many watch, enjoy and talk about - surprisingly few of us seem to have the opportunity to get out there and kick a ball.
“That has to change. If we really are to boost levels of physical activity across the board, football should play a key part in that.
“We need to have better, more affordable access to sports facilities for all ages and abilities.
“Even the most basic things like taking down ‘no ball games’ signs and making sure the grass is cut on public pitches would give the public more opportunity to play.
“If more people played on a regular basis, not only would the nation’s health improve, but we could foster new talent for our national team as well.”
Just one in 12 Scots told the Scottish Household Survey they had played football in the past four weeks.
The figures have remained broadly static over the past few years, even though general participation in regular physical activity has risen from 73 per cent to 79 per cent since 2007.
Elsewhere, statistics show a 40 per cent increase in the number of women taking up sport over the last four years.
Research by the impartial Scottish Parliament Information Centre revealed 46 per cent more women are playing in football clubs, with 82 per cent more taking up basketball and 65 per cent more joining hockey clubs.
There has also been a 35 per cent boom in the number of women playing rugby union.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article