Four football lovers who came together for casual games at tech conferences are gearing up to trial their new social networking app.

Bournemouth-based Nine98 – named after the 99.8 per cent of amateur players who never make it in the professional game – allows players to log their own statistics and connect with teammates.

In a modern twist on football sticker or trading card swapping, users can also exchange and collect virtual jerseys from fellow members, unlocking badges, patterns and logos to upgrade their own shirts.

Now Nine98 has rolled out an alpha version of the app for 11,000 users worldwide, selected from a waiting list which attracted 14 million page impressions on social media.

Their early ‘comment for access’ product posts garnered nearly 50,000 comments from users around the world.

The founders are also preparing to raise multimillion-pound seed funding to take the app to market as its alpha trial continues.

Early investors in a £400,000 pre-seed round have included founder of New York-based Gotham FC Bobby Cho, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy, Somerset Patriots baseball club co-chairman Josh Kalafer and crypto-based luxury brand 9dcc founder gmoney.

The four co-founders of Nine98 – entrepreneurs from the UK and US – are chief executive officer Julian Hirsh, chief product officer Jordy Coltman, director of partnerships Joshua Murphy and chief strategy officer Andrew Wang.

Jordy, 27, is a former student at the Grange School in Christchurch and now lives in Bournemouth.

He’s played as a winger at semi-pro level, including at Ringwood Town FC.

“All four of us have played at a good level,” he said.

“Like 99.8 per cent of players, we never made it pro, yet still retain a massive love for the game.

“We aim to solve the loneliness culture in football in an innovative way by giving new generations the ability to connect, exchange and collect virtual shirts – just like they would’ve done with stickers or trading cards.

“We’re building towards creating a space where amateur players can truly express themselves and connect with others.

“The Nine98 app is building towards helping players find games and social events in real life, whether they’re new to an area or simply looking for others to play with.

“Players – whether playing eleven, five, or six-a-side – can already use Nine98 to log their games, track their performances and record key stats such as goals and memorable moments, helping to bring structure and storytelling to the grassroots game.

“From an impromptu kickabout to where we are today, we’ve secured pre-seed investment, gained massive interest with more than 14 million impressions on social media, released our app for alpha testing and are preparing for our next phase of growth with seed funding.

“It’s pretty phenomenal, and we’re looking forward to exciting times ahead with a genuinely game-changing platform that is focused on players and our shared love of the beautiful game.”

Nine98 is aimed at players aged 12 and above.

Shirts can be swapped shirts through QR codes post-game, or members can simply join in the fun of jersey collecting and unlocking upgrades for their shirts.

The company has already signed a partnership with custom kit designer Icarus Football to expand the limited-edition collectability of their jerseys and will be collaborating with more pro clubs, brands, leagues and athletes in the near future.

Among the other co-founders is Julian, who played college football (that’s soccer) in the US; and Joshua and Andrew, who both attended New England boarding school Phillips Academy Andover.

Joshua is also a Premier League team investor.

After the group’s first impromptu kickabouts, they organised games at tech conferences held eight times a year in such locations as Miami, New York, Paris and London with partners like Liquid Death, PUMA, Pudgy Penguins and OpenSea for more than 1,300 people.

From there, they decided to build the Nine98 app for the community that they were creating and the millions of other football fans worldwide.

They’ve assembled a team of talent at their Bournemouth HQ and offices in London and New York, including chief operations officer Nick DeNuzzo, chief technology officer Cris Sepulveda, head of design Julio Rivera, head of content Adam Dickens, head of fashion and business development Freya Quinton and designer and developer Yusuf Bayrak.

• nine98.io