Founded by football agent and recruitment specialist, Stewart Macgregor, and professional youth coach, Piero Carrino, Football Careers Ltd, is targeting revenues of more than £1 million within 24 months.

The firm sources off the pitch staff for positions at all levels in the game, including academy directors, performance analysts, physiotherapists, senior professional development-phase coaches.

As well as providing traditional recruitment services, the business has an e-commerce site that will allow applicants to apply for positions remotely, as well as accessing services including CV and covering letter-writing and advice on improving interview skills.

The company’s founders also work closely with the League Managers Association (LMA), the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), helping former and current players transition into non-playing roles, or preparing them for positions in the corporate world.

They also work with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and the Football Association of Wales (FAW), assisting their coach education departments with CV and career advice presentations on their UEFA courses.

Football Careers is a rebrand of Mr Carrino’s existing company, Sport Careers Agency, pivoting the business towards a focus within the football industry with the added service of offering bespoke recruitment solutions.

With an existing database of 90,000 people working at all levels of the game globally, its business plan includes a ‘seven figure’ revenue target within 24 months, initially employing six staff, rising to more than £2m by the end of year three.

Mr Macgregor, who has spent his career working in the football and professional services industries, said the new business will bring added professionalism to football recruitment.

He said: “At the moment, the processes of recruitment in football could be made more professional. Change is desired and is happening more and more, driven by firms like ours in partnership with human resource teams at clubs where football recruitment is coming into line with the corporate world.”

Central to Football Career’s plans is a sophisticated e-commerce platform, developed by Coatbridge-based digital agency Hybrid Anchor, that will give the business a distinct and powerful online presence when it is launched later this year.

It will harness the collective value of 4000 CV candidates, 25,000 jobs board subscribers and 75,000 social media followers, from Mr Carrino’s current business, Sport Careers Agency Ltd.

He said: “There are other sports recruitment agencies. Ours is the only dedicated football recruitment business in Scotland and one of a few in the U.K. A lot of sport recruitment companies have access to candidates but they don’t have the volume that we have in our network.

“Across all of our networks, we have a reach of up to 90,000 people working at all levels in the game.”

He added: “Hybrid Anchor is creating an e-commerce website which will allow our operation to be more automated. People can now do everything remotely, including upgrading and downgrading subscriptions and purchasing CV packages.

“The current website is a very manual process. People will inquire through the website; we then arrange a call; we then have to send them an email outlining package options and they either agree to it or they don’t; and then we have to take the payment manually, so it can be a lengthy process.

“Clubs will be able to pay to post job adverts and we have candidates who will apply for positions at all levels in the game.”

While the bulk of Football Careers activities is focused on recruiting non-playing staff, the company also provides services aimed at helping players, coming to the end of their playing days, to plan and make the transition into new careers.

Mr Carrino, who is also an A-licensed coach at Motherwell Football Club, said: “With the PFA, we produce professional CVs for some of their members, including younger players who are having to retire through injury and those who are coming to the end of their careers.

“We also have partners within the English Premier League and the Championship. We offer a player care support service to support their player support programmes to help ex-players learn how to market themselves, how to apply for jobs.

“Depending on the age that a player signs their first contract, not all will have achieved Nat 5s or GCSEs at school and such a small percentage of footballers eventually make it to a professional standard.

“So, the programmes are designed to help the kids understand what life would look like without football, how you can use the skills that you’ve gained within football and apply those to the outside world. We will help them with the CVs, how to apply for jobs, how to send covering letters.”

Mr Macgregor said: “Our offering is focused on what happens if they don’t make it, but also, what happens if they do because, even if they become a professional footballer, the chances are they won’t be earning £150,000 a week.

“They might be earning £1,000 a week and have a pretty solid career for 15 years, which is great. But what happens after that? Do they have the money set aside or do they have plans in place to make a living and to pursue a career afterwards?

“Most will say they either want to go into coaching or media but Sky Sports don’t hire 150 to 200 new presenters every season. The Premier League and the clubs themselves have their own pathways programmes and we support the to fill the gaps that football can’t.”