Footballer or Soldier?

I was looking recently at some old British Army recruiting posters dating back to around the First World war. What struck me was how many featured footballers or guys playing football. Yesterday I spotted one that looked like it dated from the between the World Wars for the Highland Light Infantry which stressed its proud record on both the battlefield and sports field. I would be very surprised if soldiers really spent as much time kicking a ball around as the recruiting posters suggested. Right up until at least the late 1950s football players appear to have featured a lot in recruitment posters. The Royal Regiment of Scotland seems to have opted for a variation on the theme in one reasonably recent poster by featuring shinty players.