Gurr, working remotely from Scotland, and McLae, based in New Zealand, begin discussions between players and federations that have led to several high-level international developments.
Gurr’s experience includes time as a coach, scout and video analyst, but it was a volunteer role for the Samoa Football Federation, helping the nation of just 200,000 people in its search for players, that sparked his current venture.
“We’re trying to grow this and help as many nations as we can,” Gurr says.
“With Samoa, from 2021 to 2023 we find more than 350 players. We find players in the Manchester City academy who are eligible, players in Spain, Qatar, China, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia.
“You wouldn’t believe where they are.”
Gurr estimates that of the players identified as eligible for Samoa, across all age groups in men’s and women’s football, around 60 debuts have been recorded so far.
His work with the Cook Islands, a nation of just 10,000 people, has identified 50 players and led to 10 debuts in just one year.
Samoa coach Ibrom, who last year led the nation to back-to-back World Cup qualifying victories for the first time, said: “When Alastair approached me in 2021, he opened up a conversation about what strategy we could develop. in Samoa to improve player identification.
“Once identified, Alastair and Russ can facilitate conversations, or they can be as simple as a cold call – this week I received a message from a potential player in the United States.
“As a result, we have had enormous success. All countries are trying to do this now to compete at a high level on the international stage. This has had a really positive impact on the Samoa Football Federation.”
