JUST when you thought you had seen it all in football - now the owners of a North Yorkshire club have branched out into agency.

i2i Sports, who control Northern Counties East League premier division high-fliers Tadcaster Albion, have become FA licensed football agents.

The firm, which operates out of offices in Millfield Lane, in Nether Poppleton, have already recruited their first player back into the game.

Nicky Deverdics, the ex-Newcastle United youth who had been playing with the Brewers last season, is now turning out for Dover Athletic in the Conference.

And i2i, having successfully dipped their toe into the agency waters, have much bigger plans as they develop this new arm to their business.

A new football and education academy will be based in York and run partnership with York St John and York City FC, while they also plan to establish links with as many professional clubs as possible.

Steve Chandler holds the agent’s licence and he said the decision to move into agency was motivated by a desire to help young players to get back into the game.

He said: “It has stemmed from a love of the game - from myself and the other directors of the business who have all been involved in local and semi-pro football - and we realised we wanted to get more involved.

“This was a natural choice to be able to look after players.

“Matthew Gore, i2i’s managing director, looks after York City Schoolboys and he has had players who have progressed to professional clubs.

“The parents and the young lads themselves would often come back to him and say they wished he could help or look after them and give them advice so that’s where the idea was born.

“We want to take those young players and help them progress and create those opportunities for them.

“We can’t represent players until they are 16 but it is about developing relationships of trust with players and parents.

“Some football agents, notoriously, have a bad reputation for exploiting players and being in it for the money.

“We wanted to base our business on the principles of our other areas of interest and offer something different.”

Gore added the fledgling firm would be looking to establish a foothold in the Football League as quickly as possible. “We want to get in immediately,” he said.

“The people we are talking to now are at Premier League level. We want to do it differently. Someone has to make a stand sometime.

“We would aim to put money back into the game. “ He continued: “We felt really strongly that a large proportion of the cohort of footballers that - because someone has made a decision, whether financial or their face doesn’t fit - are released from academies, or not taken to them.

“That’s ridiculous, really, and is one of the reasons we want to give people that opportunity.”