Scott Shea, from Chedburgh, created the game, which is based around fantasy football players, for his son's birthday party a couple of years ago.

It was such a success that he began to develop the idea further and gave up his job as general manager at Philips Electronics.

Now, a year on, the Shea family have launched the game with tournaments set to take place at Norwich City Football Club and Ipswich Town Football Club.

Mr Shea said: "We thought it would just be a bit of fun but we had teachers with us and they asked if they could borrow it to play at school.

"With the children showing an interest in it, I thought 'this is the one chance of making it myself'.

"You get very close to it when it's your baby. I'm a little bit apprehensive, but it's tremendously exciting."

The game, which is set in the future, has two levels which youngsters can choose to play.

Lizzie Shea, Scott's sister-in-law and the marketing manager for the game, said: "The reaction has been really, really good, particularly with nine to 16- year-olds as they all collect football cards but you can't really do a lot with them, whereas with this, they have just absolutely taken it on board."

Mr Shea said he was happy with how the game had developed.

All the professionals working on the project had swapped being paid with a share of the company instead.

More than 250,000 football cards are due to be sent out to youngsters across the region over the next month.

A website, where the cards can be bought, went live last weekend and, in a year's time, children will be able to play against their friends online.

Tournaments will take place at Norwich City FC on March 26 and at Ipswich Town FC on April 3.