The number of Scottish women playing football has "soared" by almost 50% in the past four years, while the int'l side has gone from “strength to strength,” according to Katrine Bussey of the LONDON TIMES. The Scottish women’s football team qualified for the European championships for the first time this year, with Scottish National Party MSP Mairi Gougeon saying that it was “no coincidence” the number of females taking up the game has been growing. She spoke out after figures from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre showed there had been a 40% increase in women joining basketball, football, hockey, aquatics, rugby and tennis clubs. This includes an 82% increase in women in basketball clubs, a 65% rise in women in hockey clubs and 35% more women in rugby union clubs. Gougeon said that increased funding for sportscotland in the '18-19 budget "could lead to even more women taking up such activities" (LONDON TIMES, 12/26). Bussey also reported despite the rise in women playing football, just 8% of people overall "are playing the national sport," according to official figures. The Scottish Household Survey revealed when asked what sport people have taken part in over the past four weeks, "just one in 12 said football." The figures have remained "broadly static" over the past few years, even though general participation in regular physical activity has risen from 73% to 79% since '07 (SCOTSMAN, 12/26).
