Rugby league players Paul Gallen and Benji Marshall, three Australian soccer internationals and an Olympic bronze-medal winning cyclist are among a group of athletes owed tens of thousands of dollars following the collapse of a social media start-up that was supposed to connect sports stars with their fans.

20Four, a new social media platform designed to rival Instagram and Twitter by giving sports fans access to videos shot by their favourite athletes as they trained, prepared for games and went about their lives, collapsed in late December.

Paul Gallen is one NRL star owed unpaid fees from the collapsed start-up. Credit:Craig Golding

Backed and run by major figures in the AFL, and with former Fox Sports head of strategy Chris Haigh as its chief executive, 20Four signed up stars including former Melbourne Storm fullback Billy Slater, Aussie rules players Joel Selwood and Darcey Vescio and cricketer Peter Siddle.

But 20Four appears to have been unable to capitalise on that star power, and liquidators are now trying to sell the last of its assets to pay the more than $900,000 it owes.