Scotland's 'only dedicated football recruitment agency' sets £1 million-plus revenue goal

A recruitment agency billed as the first in Scotland dedicated to the football industry is targeting revenues in excess of £1 million within 24 months.

Glasgow-based Football Careers sources off-the-pitch staff for positions at all levels in the game, including academy directors, performance analysts, physiotherapists and senior 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.

The venture’s founders – football agent and recruitment specialist Stewart Macgregor and professional youth coach Piero Carrino – also work closely with the League Managers Association (LMA) and the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), helping former and current players transition into non-playing roles, or preparing them for positions in the corporate world. Football Careers marks a rebrand of Carrino’s existing company, Sport Careers Agency, pivoting the business towards a focus within the football industry with the addition of offering bespoke recruitment services.

With an existing database of 90,000 people working at all levels of the game globally, the firm’s business plan includes a seven-figure revenue target within 24 months, initially employing six staff. The goal is for turnover to rise to more than £2m by the end of year three.

Macgregor 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.”

While the bulk of Football Careers’ activities focus 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.

Central to the plans is an 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. It will harness the collective value of some 4,000 CV candidates, 25,000 jobs board subscribers and 75,000 social media followers, from Carrino’s current business.

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 UK. 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.

Piero Carrino and Stewart Macgregor.

“Hybrid Anchor is creating an e-commerce website which will allow our operation to be more automated. 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,” he added.