New research published by the University of Kent has raised doubts as to whether the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will deliver an increase in grassroots sports participation.

Organisers of the London Games are hoping that next summer's event will encourage more people to take part in sport and help ensure a "soft legacy" at grassroots level. However, research into the soft legacy of the 2004 Athens Game in Greece failed to deliver a sustained increase in sports or physical activity participation, according to the latest study.

Dr Sakis Pappous of the university's Centre for Sport Studies said there had been a 'short-lived' 6 per cent growth in the number of people playing sport between 2003 and 2004. However, the study found that the figure dropped by 13 per cent in the following five years to a level of participation "significantly lower than even the period before the Games".

Dr Pappous said: "It is not even clear that the short-lived increase in those exercising regularly was down to the Games effect as Greece won the UEFA European Football Championship in that year. "But what is evident from the statistics is that rather than producing a lasting impact on a generation of people who are excited about sport, the Games in Greece had at best only a temporary impact on participation in sport and physical activity."