THE art of reminiscing can now be added to the list of exports Scotland has given to the world. Given the nation’s fondness for reflecting dreamily on the past – especially when it comes to sporting achievements of yore – it is perhaps not a surprise that we should become pioneers in this particular field, too.

The Football Memories Scotland project run by Alzheimer Scotland and the Scottish Football Museum was the first of its kind anywhere in the world when it was launched almost a decade ago with a simple premise; to try to stimulate mental recall among people with dementia by discussing teams, matches and players from their past.

Since then, however, its effect and growth have both been remarkable. There are now more than 200 reminiscence groups across the country, hosted in care homes, libraries, hospitals, pubs and inside football clubs. Its scope has expanded too, reaching out to those experiencing depression, loneliness or social isolation as well as those with dementia, while the concept has also spread into other sports; rugby, cricket, golf, and speedway all run similar projects now.

Additional expansion and diversity will both be among the topics at Football Memories Scotland’s first national conference to be held at Hampden on Thursday where guest speakers include the Sports Minister Joe FitzPatrick.

Also in attendance will be visitors from Brazil, USA and the Netherlands who have travelled to Glasgow to glean information about establishing similar programmes in their own countries.

“The convention is a celebration of where we’ve got to, and also a learning event,” explained Robert Craig, chair of Football Memories Scotland and Sports Heritage Scotland.

“We’ve got a range of speakers addressing different aspects of this kind of provision, and we’ve also got visitors coming from abroad as this is a world-leading project.

“We’ve just signed a formal agreement with Sao Paulo University to develop a memories project in Brazil so we are going to be providing them with expertise and resources to get them started.

“So the university have sent someone from their medical faculty and the Brazilian counsel is coming along as well.

“From America there is a guy coming from Clemson University in South Carolina as they’re looking at doing something similar around baseball memories. There are three or four groups in America at the moment so it’s quite small scale but they’re keen to learn more.

“The other one is Willem II football club in Holland who have started one up and Jimmy Calderwood is involved in that one, too. They came over last year to have a look and it’s up and running now. So the whole thing is starting to gather some international momentum.”

Reminiscing calls on all the senses. Fifty government-funded Memory Boxes will be dispatched to groups all around the country, allowing participants to look at old cigarette trading cards, feel old footballs and shirts and become reacquainted with the smell of carbolic soap and liniment oil.

All these different stimuli help to unlock minds that had seemed closed for good, the spreading realisation of recollection bringing joy to watching family members and friends. It can be a wholly cathartic process.

“We’re looking at doing more research into the impact of these programmes, but what we’re finding is people come along and for a short time it re-energises them,” added Craig. “They become almost like what they were before dementia, although that usually wears off after a while.

“But we’re hearing stories of people in care homes who would previously never come out of their rooms but they then started to come out for the memory sessions.

“People would come who hadn’t said a word for weeks and something triggers their memory and they just start talking about it. The conversation might start on football but they then move on to what happened on the way to the match, where they went for a drink and where they went after the game. It’s an amazing thing to see. Once you find the right trigger it just gets people going.”

The next challenge is to how best support more women whose memories were not shaped by sporting events but by other experiences.

“The next thing we want to look at is social history that goes further than sport,” added Craig. “I’d like to see something that involves a lot more women, especially if they’re not as interested in sport as the men.

“We want to look at where they worked, the dance halls and cinemas that they went to, what other hobbies they had. We’ve seen how well the football memories project has worked over the past decade, but there is still so much more we can do.”